A man who choked a vulnerable woman to death during sex has been jailed for four years and eight months, prompting fury from women’s rights campaigners.

       Sam Pybus, 32, applied “prolonged” pressure to Sophie Moss’s neck during consensual sex at her home in Darlington in the early hours of February 7.

       The mother-of-two was found unconscious and naked by police officers in her bed, and later died in hospital.

       Pybus - who was married, but had been seeing Miss Moss for three years - told the court his occasional lover would encourage him to strangle her during sex.

       The court heard that Ms Moss lived alone and had a history of alcohol misuse, and had physical and mental health problems.

       Judge Paul Watson QC, sentencing him at Teesside Crown Court, accepted the married defendant did not intend to kill and his remorse was genuine. The 32-year-old had previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

       We Can’t Consent To This, a campaign group set up in response to the “rough sex” defence claims used against women, said the sentence sends a “dreadful message to women”.

       Sam Pybus has been jailed for four years and eight months

       (PA)

       Spokesperson Fiona Mackenzie said: “It seems that strangling a woman to death is still viewed in law as an unfortunate accident, rather than terrible serious violence.

       “This sends a dreadful message to women - four years and eight months is an outrageous sentence for killing a woman.”

       Ms Mackenzie added that this year “strangulation was made a specific offence” and that the government was clear that “claims of rough sex must not be used by perpetrators to evade justice”.

       Labour grandee Harriet Harman confirmed on Twitter she has referred the case to the Attorney General to be reviewed as unduly lenient.

       Pybus was originally charged with murder but the court heard a Home Office pathologist found that the amount of pressure applied to the vulnerable mother-of-two’s neck was towards the lower end of cases which resulted in death.

       The pressure could have been applied for tens of seconds or even minutes, the court heard. There was no sign of any other violence used or evidence of a fight.

       On the day in question Pybus had drunk 24 bottles of Amstel lager over 10 hours, and after his wife went to bed he drove round to the 33-year-old’s flat.

       At 4.43am on February 7 he then drove to Darlington police station and told staff he believed he had strangled Ms Moss in her flat.

       He told detectives that during their casual sexual activity, he would apply pressure to her neck, “an act he said she encouraged and enjoyed”, the court heard.

       Pybus, of Water View, Middleton St George, Darlington, told police he could only recall coming around in his boxer shorts and finding her unconscious. He told detectives that “he must have strangled her but couldn’t remember doing so”.

       The defendant had not rendered first aid and instead went to his car and thought about what to do for 15 minutes before driving to the police station.

       Detectives made extensive inquiries and found no evidence of an argument or any reason for Pybus to harm Ms Moss, the prosecution said.

       The claim that she encouraged strangulation during sex was backed up by her long-term partner, the court heard.

       Her brother James Moss, of behalf of the family, made a victim statement, saying: “She was joyous, vibrant, funny, talented and fearless, unless she saw a spider.”

       Sam Green QC, defending, said during meetings Pybus did not have self-pity, “but emotions of self-disgust and the difficulties of living with that he had done”.

       After the hearing, Christopher Atkinson, of CPS North East, said: “While the defendant has always acknowledged the fatal consequences of his actions, he also claimed that it was never his intent to cause Sophie serious harm or, as was tragically the case, her death.

       “We must make it very clear that the Crown Prosecution Service has not simply accepted the account put forward by the defendant, but that we have proactively determined that there was insufficient evidence capable of establishing beyond reasonable doubt that he intended the serious harm or death of Sophie Moss.

       “In cases where death is caused by an unlawful act, but such intent cannot be proven, the appropriate charge to bring is one of manslaughter, for which we have built a robust case against the defendant.”