SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A former Yellowknife resident has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for a vicious attack on a woman in her Mayerthorpe, Alta., home last year.

Travis Harold Bourke, 34, pleaded guilty in a Stony Plain, Alta., courtroom Tuesday to a Nov. 26, 2009 assault in which he attacked a 49-year-old woman with a hammer, stabbed her throat with a knife and choked her until she was unconscious.

The victim managed to take the hammer away from Bourke and hit him in the forehead with it. At one point, they both tumbled down the stairs while fighting.

The victim's son awoke and came to help as she was losing consciousness. Bourke fled the scene.

Police arrested Bourke four hours after the assault. He was walking along a highway not far from the victim's home.

The victim was taken to hospital and treated for non-life threatening injuries.

"Her injuries were quite grievous," said Alberta Crown prosecutor Jeff Morrison. "If he had severed her carotid artery, she would be dead."

In her victim impact statement, the victim told of how the attack caused her more pain than just her physical injuries.

"All my life I've strived to be strong, independent person, now I sit in my house with the doors and windows locked afraid to go outside," she told the court, as reported by CTV.

The Crown and defence both recommended a 12-year sentence.

Bourke was also charged with theft under $5,000, break and enter, mischief and trespassing relating to other incidents that same night. Those charges, along with ones for attempted murder and aggravated assault, were dropped in exchange for a guilty plea to break and enter with intent to commit aggravated assault.

Bourke, who is originally from Yellowknife, has a lengthy criminal record.

In 2004, he was convicted of several charges following a police standoff at a downtown apartment building in Yellowknife that lasted several hours.

The standoff ensued after Bourke broke into a residence and held three men at gunpoint with a sawed-off rifle.

He said he had to pay a $150,000 drug debt.

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