A mum-of-four was rescued from a savage assault by her brutal fiance after dialling 999 - and hiding her phone under her pillow during the attack. 

Brave Donna Speirs, 32, kept her handset hidden long enough for the call handler to pinpoint her address and send police racing to her rescue. 

The operator listened as Donna screamed for help and begged out of control Myles Leyden to stop as he threatened to murder her. 

Unaware he was being heard the thug carried on raining punches down on Donna - and even throw a knife across their baby's cot.

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When police arrived cowardly Leyden hid in Donna's bed and pretended he'd just woken up. 

Donna suffered two black eyes and multiple bruising and swelling in the attack and Leyden has now been jailed. 

A court heard how he turned violent after a day drinking at a christening and arrived home wrongly convinced that loyal Donna was seeing another man. 

Donna said: "I want everyone to know what a beast he is. 

"He was steaming drunk and was demanding to see my phone. When he eventually got hold of my mobile he snapped it in half. 

"I went to bed to try and avoid him but he came in and punched me right across my face. I put my hands up to protect myself but he just kept going. 

"He held me down and kept yelling 'tell me the f****** truth' but I was telling him the truth. I wasn't seeing anyone else. 

"He was punching me and kicking me with his knees. 

"Then he got up to turn the light on and have a look at my face and said 'for f*** sake, there is nothing wrong with you.' 

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"Then he went to get a knife and said 'I'm going to murder you, you b*****.' " 

Donna's three sons, twins aged six and a boy of four, were squealing with terror in the next room. 

Meanwhile her and unemployed Leyden's baby daughter was sleeping in the cot next to Donna's bed. 

Donna managed to grab a cordless phone, dialled 999 and hid it under her pillow as Leyden returned with a knife. 

She said: "I was so scared. When he went to get the knife, that's when I dialled 999 from the housephone which is by my bed. 

"I hid the phone under the pillow. 

"He threw the knife over the top of our cot. It missed the baby and missed me, thankfully. 

"Then he went to get a second knife and the operator could hear me yelling, "Please, don't get another knife'. 

"I just hoped that the police would turn up, I hoped that they could hear what was happening. 

"I actually could hear the operator talking to me when the phone receiver was under the pillow. 

"So I managed to wriggle it further into the pillow in case he heard. 

"It was a woman call operator and I really think she saved my life. I'm so thankful to her." 

Leyden, 27, was jailed for 11 months for the horrific attack in the early hours of June 27. 

He was also given a three year non-harassment order to stay away from Donna. 

The Scottish Sheriff who jailed him said he wanted to imprison him for longer but couldn't because of a blunder by prosecutors. 

The Crown Office - the Scottish equivalent of the CPS - prosecuted the attack as a minor "summary" case, rather than a more serious "indictment" case. 

This meant the maximum sentence that could be imposed was a year - and the sheriff was obliged to reduce even that paltry sentence because Leyden plead guilty. 

Sheriff Hamilton at Greenock Sherriff Court said: "This is an appalling assault -- an appalling catalogue of behaviour. 

"You can consider yourself fortunate that this matter was prosecuted on a summary complaint rather than on indictment. 

"If this case had been indicted given your history -- which includes assault and robbery, an assault on indictment for a knife offence -- you would be looking at a sentence of years and not months. 

"Unfortunately, parliament limits my powers and the maximum I can give you is 12 months." 

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Donna, of Greenock, Inverclyde, said she wanted to speak out to warn other women of Leyden whose lenient prison sentence she has blasted. 

She said: "The sentence is a joke. The sheriff wanted to lock him up for longer. But he wasn't allowed to." 

Donna, now determined to rebuild her life for the sake of her children, added: "For him to do what he did to me in front of the kids is the behaviour of a beast. 

"Since it's happened he's shown no remorse at all and I hope he has a terrible time in prison. I hope he rots in hell. 

"No woman should have to put up with what I suffered."