A BRAVE victim of appalling domestic abuse has told how she feared her boyfriend would burn her to death as he disabled smoke alarms and tried to start fires during a horrific two-hour assault.

The woman, who asked not to be named, described how Martin McLeod – who was obsessed with fire – subjected her to the vicious attack just three months into their relationship.

It comes weeks after the pyromaniac admitted assaulting his then partner at a flat in Bathgate Street, Dennistoun, on June 29 and 30, last year.

Last night, his terrified victim revealed her torment as McLeod cruelly taunted her about his obsession with fires prior to the attack.

The 34-year-old said: “I was completely terrified because he joked about the fact that he was born on bonfire night and that he liked fires.

Read more: Glasgow footballer Anton Houghton to be honoured with balloon release

“That night I honestly thought he was going to kill me.”

At the High Court in Glasgow last month, McLeod was locked up for four years after he was deemed a “serious risk to women.”

The 35-year-old went on a rampage, putting letters in a toaster and causing them to catch fire, smashed smoke alarms with a hiking stick, poured lighter fluid over a door and put metal cutlery in a microwave in an attempt to set the woman’s house on fire.

McLeod, who has previous convictions for domestic violence, threw a glass bottle at his victim, hitting her on the body, knocked her to the ground, poured perfume over her, threw her to the floor and kicked her.

Last night his former partner bravely spoke for the first time about the terrifying ordeal.

She suffered escalating abuse from the start of the relationship at the hands of McLeod, who she described as controlling, manipulative and possessive.

The victim said: “I met him at the pub one night in March last year and he came to my house and basically moved himself in.

“He basically forced me into a relationship.”

The mum-of-two recalled feeling “constantly weak” and stressed as McLeod inflicted psychological abuse on her.

McLeod moved into her home without asking after the first date, then slowly and insidiously began to abuse her.

The nursing student’s weight plummeted to just five stone as former stage builder McLeod began to verbally abuse her.

Less than a month after they started dating, he had begun to control every aspect of her life.

She said he used gaslighting tactics and attempted to turn her close friends against her.

Read more: Toddler tragically dies after Clydebank flat fall

During one domestic attack she claims he taunted her with a knife by rubbing it up and down her arms.

“I was quite vulnerable around the time that I’d met him, I had a partner at the time in prison and I was waiting on him to get out,” she explained.

“Martin knew this and I think he preyed on that fact and forced his way into my life.

“He’d do things to try and threaten me so I wouldn’t go out but then he’d make out that what he’d done wasn’t a big deal.

“One time he had a knife and was rubbing it up and down my arms as if to scare me.

“He got to all my close friends and would tell them bad things about me.

“My weight dropped to about five stone when I was with him because I was barely eating.

“If I made myself food and left it down for a minute he’d take it away and eat it.”

She added: “I think he was trying to weaken me so he could groom me for abuse.”

In June last year, the woman had been working at TRNSMT festival in Glasgow when she returned to her flat to find McLeod there.

She noticed he’d been drinking and had a “deranged” look in his eyes after finding a letter from her ex partner sent from prison.

It was then that he began a sickening attack on his victim, battering her with a hiking stick, pouring lighter fluid on her and threatening to set her house on fire.

The ordeal lasted around two hours before she found the courage to escape the flat in just her bath robe.

She said: “I’d been working a 12-hour shift and I came home just after 10pm and he’d obviously been through my stuff because he started waving about this letter I’d got from my ex.

“He started to get violent – he started pushing me about and dragging me to the floor.

“He then poured lighter fluid on me and poured the full thing down me and in my eyes.

“I thought he was going to set me on fire.

“He looked completely deranged, his eyes had gone black.

“He started putting paper into the toaster and was turning it on.

“After that he held my face against the microwave after putting metal cutlery inside.

“He’d disabled all the smoke alarms. I thought the attack would never end.”

His tiny victim – who now suffers from anxiety and has been forced to stay in a women’s refuge – was left covered in bruises during the assault.

Heartbreaking photos show her injuries and painfully thin frame.

During sentencing last month, the “appalling” thug was told by judge Lady Rae: “You clearly are a serious risk to any women who enter into a relationship with you.”

His solicitor, Chris McKenna, told the court there is a job waiting for McLeod in a company involved with fire safety when he gets out of jail.

Read more of today's top Glasgow stories

His victim said the comment was “another kick in the teeth.”

She added: “I feel like that was his last way of getting a dig in about working in a fire job – it was a kick in the teeth.

“My kids could have been in the house that night.

“He clearly has no remorse and is evil.

“I’m glad he’s behind bars.”