Stacey Gwilliam, 34, was attacked by bodybuilder Keith Hughes, 39, just days after he proposed to her.
The two had been walking on the Gower Peninsula in South Wales when they began to row.
Hughes became irate and set upon her, strangling her then covering her in dirt and foliage on a beach and leaving her for dead in the shallow grave in July last year.
Speaking to Good Morning Britain, Stacey described how she woke up trapped, only able to see blurs of green and brown.
She tried to get up or reach out her arms, but the weight was too great.
Desperately, she started to scratch with her fingernails to try to escape and miraculously managed to reach the surface.
‘I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move. It was like I was paralysed. It was awful really. Trying to get your head together to work out what was going on around you,’ she told GMB.
‘I tried to get up, but couldn’t. I had to
use my nails to get out of where I was. That was all I could do. I
tried to push but I didn’t have the upper strength.’
She staggered up and walked away from the
scene until she collapsed outside a golf club, where members of the
public raised the alarm.
Her injuries were so severe that she had
to be put in a coma for 26 days to allow her to recover, and even now
she uses a stick to walk and suffers panic attacks.
Hughes had been violent towards her in the
past, on one occasion going to prison for three assaults and false
imprisonment. After he got out, Stacey, who had been suffering from
ovarian cancer, said she agreed to take him back because she still loved
him.
But he betrayed that trust and attacked her again.
Swansea Crown Court heard he told police
‘you will never find her’ and was shocked when officers told him that
his fiancee was still alive.
After the attack last July, he was sentenced to life in prison – but will be eligible for parole in only eight years.
Stacey said she is already afraid of him walking free but believes she can get through it.
‘I feel frightened,’ she said. ‘But I’m going to be in a stronger place because I’ve got a lot of support.
‘I do have hope for the future and it’s down to the support of family, friends.’
After the case, she said: ‘I’ve been through a terrible time and the case has been horrible.
‘It was absolutely terrifying but I just want to move on with my life. I need to make a fresh start without him in my life.’
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