SALISBURY — A man was arrested after police say he assaulted his girlfriend, whose son called 911 after investigating the man’s cover story about his mother’s injuries.

Deputies responded to a home in the 400 block of Corriher Gravel Road in China Grove at approximately 2 p.m. on Sunday in reference to a past assault, according to a spokesperson for the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office. There, they spoke to the victim, who said that she had been assaulted by her boyfriend.

The victim said that at approximately 11 p.m. the night before, the boyfriend forced her into the bathroom and choked her until she was unconscious. She woke up later that night on her bed, at which point the man broke her phone to prevent her from dialing 911 and hit her on the head with a glass candlestick, the spokesperson said. At some point that night, the victim said that she tried to escape the home and the man dragged her back in by her hair.

The man allegedly forced her into the shower so that she could wash the blood off of her before going anywhere. He then took her to the store the next morning so that they could purchase a phone to replace the one he had broken and forced her to call her children and tell them that she had suffered the injuries as the result of an ATV accident. When they returned home, she said that she mouthed “help me” at the children.

The woman’s son then called 911. During the call, he said that his mother said that she had been in an ATV accident, but he had gone to check on the ATV and it did not appear that it had been damaged in any way.

While speaking with the victim, deputies noticed bruising and discoloration around her neck consistent with being strangled and other bruising consistent with assault.

Deputies arrested 31-year-old Phillip Dekota George at the home. George was charged with felony assault by strangulation, assault with a deadly weapon, assault on a female, injury to personal property, interfering with emergency communications and false imprisonment. George was placed in the Rowan County Detention Center and was not given a bond due to the crimes being related to domestic violence.