A YOUNG woman begged for help in a distressing voice note as her twisted ex-boyfriend carried out a horror attack.
Hannah-Lou Hurst, 20, was throttled, bitten and suffered damage to her eye during the terrifying ordeal but managed to fight off thug Josh Dunn, 26, before contacting his grandmother, telling her to call the police .
In the brief recording, which The Sun has chosen not to publish, Hannah-Lou can be heard crying and barely audible as she frantically says “he’s got hold of me again”.
In further messages in the same exchange, she wrote: “Help pls”.
Hannah-Lou had been giving Dunn a lift to his nan’s home in Egremont, Cumbria , after he suffered a head injury on a night out when the attack began.
He was heavily intoxicated on drink and drugs and, from the backseat, had begun pulling her hair as she drove, causing her to slam the brakes on.
As they pulled up outside the housing block, Dunn “bit my left eye and strangled me while sticking his fingers in my other eye and saying he was going to kill me”, Hannah-Lou said.
“I managed to get the strength to get outside, but then he came from behind and pinned me up against the car,” she continued.
Carer Hannah-Lou said she’d tried to dial the police off her phone as she fought off Dunn, but he knocked it out of her hand.
“There was no soul behind the eyes, that’s what he looked like,” she recalled.
She was eventually able to message Dunn’s cousin, and then leave the distressing voice note, before his nan came outside to help.
She managed to usher Hannah-Lou inside and they locked the door behind them, leaving Dunn outside.
Hannah-Lou then used Dunn’s nan’s phone to call her mum Stacey Holmes, but told her not to come out.
However, Stacey, 45, made the 10-minute car journey and pulled up in the block’s car park, not realising Dunn was still prowling around in the darkness, and the police had yet to arrive.
She then suffered a prolonged beating which left her with concussion and internal bleeding.
Stacey told The Sun: “Hannah called me screaming, saying ‘mam, he’s hurt me!’ She told me not to come but no mother in their right mind would wait when they heard the screams and distress in her voice.
“I got out of the car and was shouting for Hannah and he came out of the dead of night.”
She continued: “He came lunging towards me at full speed… he got hold of me by the scruff of my neck and dragged me to a pebbledashed wall with his piercing eyes.
“He was off his head and said ‘what the f*** are you going to do about it?’
“I was too scared to hurt him – in my fear I was worried I would be arrested. I’ve never thrown a punch in my life.”
However, Stacey said she was able to tackle him to the ground and “managed to flip him over” but then “became fear struck and froze”.
She went on to describe how: “He flipped me onto my back and gave me a four minute long beating, kicking me in the right hand side of my head and body.
“I got concussion and a cracked nose. He booted me in the abdomen several times, and I was bleeding vaginally for several weeks.”
Eventually, the police arrived and restrained him, with Stacey saying Dunn was screaming he would “petrol bomb the house” and kill her and Hannah-Lou.
“It was the most frightening experience of my life,” the mum added.
Hannah-Lou had watched the attack, but had been told not to go outside.
She said: “I saw it happen from the bedroom window and was on the phone to the police. I was pulled away from the window.”
Hannah-Lou went on to describe how she had been dating Dunn for nearly two years at the time of the attack in April, and had suffered a miscarriage in October 2023.
During the attack on April 7 this year, Hannah-Lou suffered a scratch to her lens and said she has since been told her prescription has changed.
She also needed antibiotics for the bite and has suspected PTSD .
Dunn, of Beckgreen, Egremont, admitted five offences: two actual bodily harm assaults, intentional strangulation, racially aggravated criminal damage, and threatening to damage property at Carlisle Crown Court on August 6, reports the Cumbria News & Star .
In her victim impact statement, read out in court, Hannah-Lou spoke of issues with Dunn within the relationship, including “numerous occasions” when he slapped her across the face while he was drunk or on drugs.
Prosecutor Isabella Denn said of the attack on April 7: “She was gasping for breath and says everything went pitch black while he shouted at her… ‘I’ll petrol bomb your house’.”
The court heard even after he was arrested, Dunn continued to be violent, telling the officers he would “slit their throats and snap their jaws”.
In her statement, Hannah-Lou had said she wakes up in cold sweats, seeing the defendant’s face and screaming.
Some of Dunn’s offences refer to incidents on May 10 while the defendant was at Egremont Store.
He picked up a sign and threw it at the window, breaking the glass. As he did this, he subjected the owner to racist abuse.
Marion Weir, defending, said during the attacks on Hannah-Lou and Stacey, he was “heavily under the influence of alcohol and substances” and has “little memory of what went on”.
She added: “He is ashamed of the behaviour he displayed that night.”
Domestic abuse - how to get help
DOMESTIC abuse can affect anyone - including men - and does not always involve physical violence.
Here are some signs that you could be in an abusive relationship:
- Emotional abuse – Including being belittled, blamed for the abuse – gaslighting – being isolated from family and friends, having no control over your finances, what you where and who you speak to
- Threats and intimidation – Some partners might threaten to kill or hurt you, destroy your belongings, stalk or harass you
- Physical abuse – This can range from slapping or hitting to being shoved over, choked or bitten.
- Sexual abuse – Being touched in a way you do not want to be touched, hurt during sex, pressured into sex or forced to have sex when you do not consent.
If any of the above apply to you or a friend, you can call these numbers:
- The Freephone National Domestic Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge on 0808 2000 247 for free at any time, day or night
- Men who are being abused can call Respect Men’s Advice Line on 0808 8010 327 or ManKind on 0182 3334 244
- Those who identify as LGBT+ can ring Galop on 0800 999 5428
- If you are in immediate danger or fear for your life, always ring 999
Remember, you are not alone.
1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men will experience domestic abuse over the course of their lifetime.
Every 30 seconds the police receive a call for help relating to domestic abuse.
Judge Nicholas Barker jailed the defendant for 20 months and imposed a five year restraining order banning any contact with the victims and also banned Dunn from going to Egremont Store where he broke the window.
Hannah-Lou is calling for the law to be updated to punish domestic abusers more harshly.
“We desperately want to change the law,” she explained. “I want it to be under an umbrella, a separate charge under domestic violence to ensure it is taken more seriously.”
In her petition she added: “My goal is to get a charge of domestic violence for the perpetrators and to also have a register – A domestic violence register like the sex offenders register where the perpetrators are to sign onto it for X amount of years to protect other women/men and or children!”
To see Hannah-Lou’s petition click here .
