A thug who punched his girlfriend in the face clapped the judge as he was sent down for more than a year-and-a-half.

Dwain Tyrrell, now 21 but just 18-years-old at the time, launched the attack in September 2019 despite being subject to both a restraining order and bail conditions banning contact with his partner.

At his trial last month, he claimed that the injuries were caused by a stranger who had jumped from the bushes and landed the blow.

Jailing him for 20 months on Thursday, Judge Nigel Daly said: “Having heard the evidence I still can’t figure out why on earth you punched her in the face, but there it is.

“Your defence that some mysterious stranger had jumped out the bushes and punched her in the face was absolutely ludicrous and I’m not surprised that you were convicted.”

Tyrrell’s barrister, Julian Lynch, had tried to persuade the judge to impose a suspended sentence. In the two-and-a-half years since the assault his client had stayed out of trouble, completed a probation programme aimed at reducing his risk to future partners and deliberately avoided getting into a new relationship as he felt he lacked the emotional maturity, the court heard.

But Judge Daly painted a chequered picture of the defendant’s engagement with probation, noting he had breached an earlier court order a number of times, had ‘no strong personal mitigation’ and sending him to prison would not result in significant harm to others dependant on him.

Stood in the dock wearing a burgundy tracksuit, Tyrrell cast a plastic cup to one side as he heard the sentence read, applauded briefly and thanked the judge.

 

Dwain Tyrrells mugshot Picture: TVP

Dwain Tyrrell's mugshot Picture: TVP

 

Earlier, he had looked towards the public gallery, where his former partner was sat, as prosecutor Elisabeth Acker read out victim personal statements chronicling the impact the attack had had.

The victim said the assault had knocked her confidence and she was worried about bumping into Tyrrell, his family and friends when she was out. She had since had a child and was concerned she might be attacked in front of the baby.

In the aftermath of the assault, doctors said the side of her face where she’d been punched might collapse if hit again. As a result she’d been more careful around the ice hockey team for whom she volunteered.

In January, jurors heard that in the wake of the attack in September 2019 the victim, then just 17, was overheard shouting ‘my eye, my eye’ by a resident sitting out on her balcony. She said the victim asked her if her eye was bleeding and explained she’d just been punched by her ex-boyfriend.

The Good Samaritan went to get her phone and, by the time she returned, the younger woman had gone.

Tyrrell, of Verbena Road, Oxford, was found guilty of causing actual bodily harm. He had earlier admitted a charge of harassment.

He had a history of offending against the woman and, just two weeks after punching her in the eye, was given a suspended sentence for a different breach of the restraining order.

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