A WOMAN who was left for dead in a pool of blood after being strangled and then battered by her boyfriend, has said she is determined to rebuild her life.

Leah Morgan, 34, was bludgeoned in the Chepstow home she shared with her former lover, Ben Feltham, last October.

Last Friday (January 14), Feltham was sentenced to three years and eight months imprisonment at Newport Crown Court after pleading guilty to a charge of Grievous Bodily Harm with intent.

Originally from Birmingham, Leah was brought up from the age of 10 in St Arvans and later Caldicot.

She was working as a nail technician in Caldicot when she first met Bristol born Ben Feltham who'd moved to Chepstow to be near his two young daughters who were living with his estranged wife in the Wye Valley.

"We got on well and he was very nice to me," says Leah, who has three young children of her own.

"After a while we decided to buy this house together. The whole reason for buying it was for the kids. It's a five bedroom house, so there was room.

"Once we moved in together he changed quite quickly. He became jealous, I couldn't socialise without him. He had a real need to control – it was a bit like living with a ticking time bomb.

"At first I was quite flattered because it seemed he wanted to spend time with me. But his behaviour spiralled. He became more and more jealous, would swear at me, became moody if he didn't get his own way and started arguments all the time."

Things came to a head when Leah (who didn't want to be pictured) says she discovered Ben was using pornography on the home computer.

"I challenged him saying 'you've got a problem' but he said I needed to live with it."

After that Leah said the relationship was 'in the balance' and came to a head one night in October at their shared home in Rockwood Road, Garden City.

"We had his girls over and one of my children was also staying over and we spent the evening together. As it got later he started to become more aggressive, then he started to cry saying he couldn't live without me."

Leah says the atmosphere grew worse and ultimately Ben took her mobile phone off her (she'd sent a text to his former wife saying he was becoming more aggressive).

"He went upstairs to the bedroom and I followed him. I said I'd been in touch with his wife and I thought he'd been lying to me. I said: 'I've outed you as a person.

"I think he said, now you're going to get it. He acted immediately and pushed me to the floor. He straddled me, I was on my back and he strangled me until I blacked out.

"When I came round I was lying in a pool of blood, there was blood half way up the bedroom walls and across the landing. He'd obviously punched or kicked me when I was unconscious. And he left the house thinking I was dead."

Feltham was later arrested on the Severn Bridge.

Leah says she was left with a broken nose and the attack had disjointed her eye socket. She now has a titanium plate to hold the muscles in place, but will always suffer with a slightly sunken eye and difficulties with peripheral vision.

"My point in speaking out is to name and shame him. I want people to know what he has done. I think there is a very dark side to him which will come out again.

"But, he has not destroyed my life. I'm a strong person. I'm going back to work soon and I'm determined to get my life back after three months of hell."