Mother-of-two, 29, who feared her ex-army sniper would kill her, painted his name in blood on her wall to help police catch him

A mother-of-two who feared her ex-army sniper would kill her painted his name in blood on her wall to help police catch him.

Emmie Dalton, 29, locked herself in her bedroom and managed to spell 'JOHN' before crazed Jonathan Hunt, 34, broke down the door.

Mrs Dalton, from Sheffield, escaped from the house and Hunt was arrested the next day. He was convicted of actual bodily harm and jailed for two years and eleven months.

The mother, a masters student, said: 'Johnny's brutal attack has scarred me for life and I will need corrective surgery on my nose in the future. But I'm a survivor and I'm finally rid of him.'

The couple matched on Tinder in January 2020 and went on their first date on Valentine's Day.

They got along well and Mrs. Dalton discovered that Hunt was an army sniper.

When Covid hit, he moved in with her and her two young children.

But when Mrs. Dalton began studying for a degree in English literature, Hunt complained that she was not paying him enough attention.

“The lockdown took its toll and soon we were arguing constantly,” she said.

Hunt went secretive with his phone in January 2021, and when Ms Dalton guessed his Facebook password one day, she discovered dozens of messages from other women.

She said: 'When I confronted him he insisted he was just flirting and blamed it on him being lonely because of all the studying I was doing.

“I tried to forgive him, but the trust was broken.”

In October 2021, the couple split and Hunt moved in with the couple, promising to remain friends.

The following year, in July 2022, Ms Dalton's mother cared for her children while throwing her friend a 50th birthday party at her home, inviting Hunt.

She said: 'Johnny was charming and on his best behavior but after everyone had left and I started tidying up he came up to me in the kitchen and demanded to know how much I'd had to drink.

“His eyes glazed over when I told him I only had a few.”

Suddenly, Hunt punched Ms Dalton hard in the face and continued to rain blows on her face. When he hit her on the nose, she heard a muffled sound.

Mrs Dalton said: 'A metallic taste filled my nostrils and I was drenched in blood.

'Terrified that he would kill me, I ducked under his arm and ran upstairs into my bedroom, locking the door behind me.'

When she heard Hunt thunder up the stairs, she had a terrifying thought.

She said: 'I thought he was going to kill me and get away with it.'

Determined not to let him escape justice, Mrs Dalton covered her index finger with blood from her face and scribbled on the wall.

As she wrote “JOHN,” Hunt burst into the room.

Mrs Dalton managed to escape through the stairs and into the street.

Hunt caught up to her and pushed her face first into the sidewalk.

She blacked out and when she came to, Hunt was gone.

Mrs Dalton said: 'I managed to drag myself home and call a friend, who took me back to hers.

'I was in too much pain to call the police and just went to bed.'

The next morning, Mrs. Dalton went home with her friend and found Hunt asleep in her bed. The police were called and Hunt was arrested.

Later that morning, Mrs Dalton went to Chesterfield Royal Hospital where she was treated for severe bruising and a dislocated nose. The consultant warned that she could have lost her left eye.

At home, she tried to scrub the walls of her blood, but the stain wouldn't budge.

She said: 'It was a sick reminder of what he had done.'

In February 2023, Jonathan Hunt admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

In August last year he was sentenced to two years and 11 months in prison at Derby Crown Court.

The judge detailed his previous convictions for 28 offences, including those arising out of a 'domestic context'.

Mrs Dalton said: “His sentence was horrendous because of what he did to me. He could have killed me.

'Now there's still blood on my wall, so I switched rooms.

“But it reminds me that I didn't let that animal have the last word.”