SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Travis Harold Bourke, a 35-year-old from Yellowknife, is facing seven charges including attempted murder after being accused of violently attacking a woman in her Mayerthorpe, Alta., home on Nov. 26.

The woman awoke to find an unknown man standing in the bedroom doorway of her home. She tried to get him to leave but he is alleged to have attacked her with a utility knife and hammer.

The pair struggled and the assailant inflicted deep cuts to the woman's neck. At one point, they both fell down a flight of stairs. The intruder then reportedly choked the woman until she almost passed out.

Police say just as the woman was losing consciousness, her son woke up and tried to help. Her attacker fled.

"Because they weren't known to one another, it would typically be called a random act," said Cpl. Wayne Oakes of the Alberta RCMP.

The woman was taken to hospital where she received treatment for non-life threatening injuries.

In relation to the incident, Bourke is charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and break and enter with intent to commit aggravated assault.

That same night, someone broke into a nearby business and caused damage to another property in the area. Bourke also faces four charges of theft under $5000, break and enter, mischief and trespassing relating to the property crimes.

Police arrested Bourke four hours after the home invasion, after they found him walking along a highway.

He is scheduled to appear in Mayerthorpe provincial court on Dec. 10.

Bourke has a lengthy criminal record. In 2004, he was convicted of several charges following a five-hour police standoff at a downtown apartment building.

On Oct. 29, 2003, Bourke broke into a residence and held three men at gunpoint with a sawed-off rifle, demanding a paint can that he believed contained $12,000.

He pleaded guilty to 11 charges, including three counts each of assault with a weapon and unlawful confinement, and one count each of assault, pointing a firearm, breach of probation, assaulting a police officer and unlawful possession of a firearm.

He was sentenced to three years in prison.