16th August 2016 – Physical. 

A heroin and crack cocaine addict has been jailed after beating his OAP partner in a three-day domestic violence attack. The defendant and victim had been together for 30 years and had a son together, but the victim had also endured 20 years of “punching and slapping” and other domestic abuse.

The defendant, a heroin addict had attempted to come off of the drug in February 2016 and blamed his partner for the withdrawal effects that he was suffering. One night, the defendant took out his frustrations on the victim by pouring a kettle full of boiling water over the victim’s head, and then set about beating her on her head and hands with a hammer.

The victim rang for an ambulance, but when paramedics arrived she told them she’d fallen down the stairs. The following day the victim went hospital and was kept overnight but she continued to lie about the source of her injuries. After returning home the next day, the victim continued to be attacked by the defendant. The defendant ordered her to go to the bedroom where he tied up her wrists with cable ties and proceeded to punch and kick her as she lay on the bed, the defendant then sat on her chest to restrict her breathing and using the blunt end of an axe began hitting the victim with it between her legs.

The defendant continued to assail the victim when he put a weightlifting strap around the victim’s neck and pulled her up into a suspended hanging position – the victim “thought she was being hanged and thought she was going to die.” The defendant eventually let the victim go and the next day she was taken to hospital where she told nurses and police the truth of how she had received her injuries. The defendant had a prior history of convictions with 36 offences since 1990, including offences related to firearms, shoplifting, theft, drugs, violence, and wounding his partner as far back as 1994.

In court, the defendant pled guilty to two charges of attempted wounding with intent and received a sentence of 17 years, made up of 12 years in custody and 5 years on licence.