MARBLEHEAD — A local man pleaded guilty yesterday to beating, raping and nearly choking to death his former girlfriend in a fit of what a prosecutor called "irrational jealousy" over her choice to have dinner with another man.

Christopher Houghton, 21, had been told by a Salem Superior Court judge that he would receive a three- to four-year prison term if he pleaded guilty rather than go to trial on charges that include two counts of aggravated rape, attempted murder, burglary and multiple assault charges.

But after hearing victim-impact statements and testimony from a defense-hired psychologist, Judge David Lowy said he would impose a slightly longer term of four to five years.

That's still less than the five to seven years sought by prosecutor Kate MacDougall, but because it's longer than the judge originally suggested, Houghton was given until next Wednesday to consider whether he'll accept the stiffer sentence or withdraw his plea and seek a trial.

Lowy said he was also troubled by Houghton's insistence to the psychologist and others that he did not recall the events of the night of Dec. 16-17, 2006.

"He just told me the facts presented by the commonwealth are true," Lowy said.

Those facts, which neither Houghton nor his lawyer, Robert Weiner, dispute, were described by MacDougall in graphic detail during yesterday's hearing:

On the evening of Dec. 16, Houghton's former girlfriend, 19 at the time, went to dinner with a friend. She kept Houghton apprised of her whereabouts with a series of text messages — not to make him jealous but to prevent him from becoming enraged that he did not know where she was, the prosecutor said.

The couple had been dating since sophomore year and had a "tumultuous" relationship that included mutual infidelity and jealousy and violence, said the prosecutor.

That night, home alone while her mother worked a late shift, she woke up to find a highly intoxicated Houghton standing next to her bed. He accused her of cheating, then punched her headboard.

Then, MacDougall said, he ripped off her pajamas and began grabbing and twisting her breasts, telling her she didn't deserve them. He grabbed her between her legs and then threatened to "rip her open." He pulled the mattress off the bed and then kicked her while she lay on the floor.

As she cowered in a closet, he slammed a broken door on top of her, then went into the bathroom and shattered the mirror with his fist.

When he returned, MacDougall said, he bit her face and pinned her down on the mattress on the floor, holding her down by the collarbone. He grabbed her between the legs again, and then he began choking her.

She eventually stopped breathing, trying to play dead, until she was overcome with the need to vomit. In the bathroom, he shoved her head into the broken mirror.

When she finally managed to get to the phone and dial 911, he grabbed it and threw it as she whispered "Help," in a barely audible voice.

Then, knowing the police were on the way, Houghton yelled, "You did this to yourself," and stormed out.

Police stopped the blood-covered and shirtless Houghton as he drove away from her home.

MacDougall said that after his arrest, Houghton was still enraged, demanding that police charge the girl with assault because she had bitten his lip in an effort to get him off her. And when police tried to take a sample of the blood and fluids on his hands, he began wiping them on his pants.

The girl's mother, in a victim-impact statement, described her horror as she bent down toward her daughter, who was about to be wheeled into Massachusetts General Hospital, and realized that there were human bite marks on her face.

She said she flashed back to when she was pregnant with her daughter and nearly miscarried at 71/2 months. "I had almost lost her for a second time," she said.

But instead of support from the community where members of her family had lived for 150 years, she found hostility. Her daughter was harassed by friends of Houghton and finally felt forced to leave the state. Visits home are an ordeal, and now the mother says she feels she may be forced to leave the town, as well.

The victim, meanwhile, is afraid to date again, afraid to be alone and suffers from anxiety. She's lost friends, who, the prosecutor said, don't appear to understand the seriousness of the assault.

MacDougall said she recommended a somewhat shorter sentence than she might typically recommend on the charges because of Houghton's youth and lack of record — but also in the hopes it would spare the victim from having to relive the events of the night by testifying at a trial.

But she said she was troubled by defense-expert evaluations of Houghton that focus more on the victim and her behavior than on Houghton.

"Inconsistent behavior is the right and privilege of being 19 years old," said the prosecutor. "The price of that should not to be raped and nearly killed in her own home."

And she said the evaluations all focused on Houghton's diagnosis of bipolar disorder, alcoholism and even on whether he was a sex offender — and not at all on whether he was a batterer.

One friend told police that she always thought her next visit home from college would be for the girl's funeral, MacDougall said, "because I believed Chris would kill her."

Weiner, Houghton's lawyer and a former prosecutor, asked a forensic psychologist to testify about Houghton's diagnosis of bipolar disorder and his progress during treatment.

Carol Ball said Houghton had been "unraveling" in the weeks before the attack. "He was out of himself," Ball said. "He lost Chris and became this out-of-control boy."

Houghton himself told the judge he's a changed man since starting treatment.

"I wish this had never happened," he said, calling the victim "a bright and beautiful human being." He also said he was distraught "when I think of losing such a person."

"I am finally at peace with myself," Houghton said. "I am ashamed of myself for what is being said about me."

"I take full blame for everything that happened," he also told the judge. "I pray I can be seen as nothing more than a young man who's made a terrible mistake."

"This is not a kid that's going to do it again," Weiner said.

Houghton remains free on a GPS monitoring bracelet pending his sentencing.