A man has been jailed for killing his partner at her home in Comeragh Road in Hammersmith by touching a nerve in her neck during a row.

Jason McKay, 36 of no fixed address was today, Friday 29 June, at the Old Bailey, jailed for five years and four months for killing 34 year-old Michelle Creed in February 2011.

McKay pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Thursday June 7.

The court heard that Ms Creed collapsed during a row with McKay and died within seconds after he put his hands round her neck for between five and 10 seconds.

Although his actions caused no obvious injury, it caused her death because of an unusual effect McKay did not know about, the court heard.

Judge Charles Wide told McKay: "Death was caused by something unusual and not seen by you.

"You stopped applying force because you thought she had chosen to stop struggling."

The court was told Miss Creed died as the result of vagal inhibition, the suppression of a nerve linking the brain to the central nervous system, leading to a heart attack.

After Ms Creed's death last January, her body lay undetected for a week after McKay, an unemployed clerk, panicked and went on the run before giving himself up in Poland.

Officers were called at approx 1.20pm on February 5 2011, to an address in Comeragh Road, Hammersmith following concerns for the welfare of Ms Creed. Police forced entry into the address and discovered heer body, and she was pronounced dead at the scene.

A post-mortem examination took place at Fulham Mortuary on 8 February 2011, but the results of this were inconclusive.

An incident room opened under Detective Chief Inspector Tim Duffield of the Homicide and Serious Crime Command (HSCC).

Four days later, on February 9 2011, Ms Creed's partner, Jason McKay, handed himself into a police station in Warsaw, Poland, admitting to officers that he had killed his girlfriend in the UK, and that he had grabbed her by the throat.

He was immediately arrested on suspicion of murder. Detectives from the HSCC then travelled to Warsaw to interview McKay, during which time he again, fully admitted the offence to police.

McKay was extradited under a European Arrest Warrant to the UK.

June 29, 2012