Zoe Dronfield is a stalking victim who was almost killed by her former partner Jason after being held captive for eight hours.

Following the attack in 2014, the mother was left with a bleed on the brain, a face so swollen it was unrecognisable, a stab wound to her neck, numerous slash wounds and a snapped right arm.

Jason was later sentenced to 14 years in 2015, with a minimum of 10 years spent in prison.

Now Ms Dronfield is backing a police campaign – launched as part of National Stalking Awareness Week – to raise awareness of a system which allows people to alert police when they have dialled 999 but are unable to speak.

She believes it is crucial that the public are aware of the little-known service, which she did not know about at the time of her attack.

Ms Dronfield, who had previously called the police over Jason’s behaviour, said her ordeal began when she tried to break up with him.

She told Sky News: “I was with my ex-partner for about a year and gradually his behaviour started to change, so I’d asked him to leave and tried to end the relationship.

“When he left the relationship, he went and lived with his parents but that’s when the stalking started.

“He was contacting me, calling me hundreds of times a day – WhatsApp, Facebook, email, leaving voicemails.

“I was having to contact the police because he was contacting me so many times that it was just impossible to conduct my life as normal.

“I’m a mother so I can’t just turn my phone off, which was the advice I was given.”

Ms Dronfield became frustrated by Jason’s constant attempts to reach her and decided that she would meet up with him in an effort to let him down gently.

“I know now I put myself in a huge amount of danger,” she said.

But when the pair met, he seemed like the “old Jason” and told her he was applying for jobs and getting his life together.

Ms Dronfield decided to let Jason come back to her house, although she made it clear it would not change anything between the two of them.

“When you’ve been with somebody, you’ve invested your life and time and you don’t just disregard them – you give people a chance,” she explained.

That night, Ms Dronfield left Jason downstairs on the sofa while she went to bed – but she woke to him attacking her.

“I felt thuds to my head. I was in and out of consciousness,” she said.

The mother said she came around and realised that Jason was trying to kill himself, adding, “I thought, I’ve got to get away – I’m in serious danger.

“I got to the landline and pressed 999. I threw the phone on the sofa because he came back in the room and was like, ‘What are you doing?’

“I thought because I’d contacted the police previously, if they get a silent call then they’ll come – but I believe that call never connected anyway.”

Ms Dronfield said it is “not widely publicised enough” that if a 999 call is made on a mobile phone, people can press 55, tap the phone or make a noise to alert police they are in danger if they are not able to speak.

She said that she had not heard of the service before, despite working with police on their procedures for dealing with domestic violence.

The 55 calls can only be made on mobile phones – not landlines – and it does not mean that police will be able to track a person’s location.

Ms Dronfield said: “I know that (the call) can’t specifically locate where you are, but police should have previous call-outs or just intelligence that they know something is going on in that household.

“It’s not usually a one-time offence – domestic violence can go on over months, years, weeks.”

She added: “I’ve never come across it so it’s crucial that the public know this service is out there and it’s available.

“How can you use something you don’t know about? You can’t.”

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