A WOULD-BE killer told police that when he strangled his partner after a drunken row it was like an 'out-of-body' experience, a court heard.

Timothy Barry told police during his interview he was 'emotionally distraught' and just wanted the woman to stay and sort out their problems.

The 31-year-old, of Mill View in Cuxham, is currently on trial at Oxford Crown Court charged with attempted murder.

Prosecutors claim that the flight lieutenant attempted to kill his partner by strangulation in the early hours of January 14, 2018, at the cottage they shared in the small South Oxfordshire village.

Barry denies attempted murder and an alternative count of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm, but admits a lesser offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

READ AGAIN: The opening of the case earlier this week.

As the trial continued today jurors saw a recorded interview Barry gave with police at Abingdon Police Station just days after the alleged attack.

During that interview he told officers that in the moments before the strangulation he had taken an overdose of paracetamol.

He described taking 'about eight' tablets and then filling a bath because that was what he had 'seen on films'.

Barry called his actions a 'cry for help' and said he had been suffering from depression in the run-up to the incident and there had been an argument with the woman that night.

Explaining what happened during the alleged attack he said: "I knelt down next to her and said 'please can we sort this out, please can you stay' and she said something like 'look at the state of you.'

"I went to stand up, moved back to the door, she said 'I am going, I am leaving.'

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"I pushed her from the shoulders on to the bed and put my hands around her neck.

"I was strangling her, I was kind of paralysed at this point, it was kind of an out-of-body feel like I was not even really there."

He said he didn't know how long the incident lasted but said 'it felt like an hour.'

Asked by police if he intended to kill the woman he said he did not.

Explaining his state of mind at the time he said he was 'completely panicked' and said: "I didn't know what was going on, I was emotionally distraught."

Barry also told officers that he had just wanted her to stay and to sort out their problems and said when she didn't reciprocate he felt 'hurt and frustrated that she was not prepared to sort it out.'

Prosecutors maintain that Barry attempted to kill his victim.

Opening the trial earlier this week, prosecutor Jane Davies said: “They had an argument, she said she was leaving, and he pushed her shoulders onto the bed, had his hands around her neck and was strangling her.

“The prosecution’s case is that he was intending to kill her."

Jurors have also heard a 999 call, made by Barry, in which he repeatedly said to call handlers ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry’ and ‘stay with me, stay with me’.

Barry told the 999 operator that the pair had a 'massive argument' before he strangled her.

After his arrest at the scene, jurors heard, the officer told Barry it was 'on suspicion of', to which he interjected by saying 'attempted murder'.

During interview two days later, Barry told police he had only used those words as he had ‘jumped to the worst possible conclusion’.

Barry denies the charges and the trial continues.