A ‘savage’ left his partner ‘terrified’ as he tore through her barricaded bedroom door and beat her in front of her young son.

Ashley Phelps, 32, was high on crack cocaine and drunk when on May 28 – bloodied after a fracas with another man outside – he was initially refused entry to the woman’s Banbury home.

The bricklayer, who had originally met the woman on a train and introduced himself as Ashley English, picked up a brick and threw it through the glass door, Oxford Crown Court heard.

His petrified partner took her six-year-old son upstairs, barricaded herself in the bedroom and called 999. She was ‘clearly terrified’, prosecutor Christopher Pembridge said.

In a basis of plea, Phelps admitted breaking through the barricade then ‘lecturing’ the woman. “I think that may mean was aggressive and shouted at her,” the prosecutor translated.

He had grabbed her by the jaw, the court heard. On the 999 call, she could be heard ‘screaming to the police’ before the line went dead.

Phelps was charged with breaking her foot and controlling and coercive behaviour towards her, in addition to the beating and violent entry he admitted.

The GBH and controlling behaviour charges were denied and, after a doctor expressed a view on the woman’s fractured foot, the Crown reviewed the case and decided there was no realistic prospect of conviction.

Jailing him for eight months, Judge Michael Gledhill KC said: “Your behaviour on this day was absolutely appalling.

“You were under the influence of drink, you were under the influence of drugs.

“You’d been in a relationship with the victim, you knew her child, you went to her address, you forced your way into the address.

“You must have caused absolute terror to both her and the child.

“Your behaviour was deplorable.”

He likened Phelps’ actions on the night of the assault to that of a ‘savage’.

In mitigation, the defendant was said to have spent more than five months in custody on remand awaiting the trial.

He had a difficult childhood, having been first introduced to drugs aged 11 by his father, it was said.

Phelps, of Roundclose Road, Adderbury, pleaded guilty on the afternoon of his trial to assault by beating and using violence to secure entry. He had 27 offences on his list of previous convictions, including an assault on a former partner.

The maximum sentence for each offence was six months, the court heard. Judge Gledhill told Phelps that, because he had spent five months on remand, he had effectively already served his sentence and was likely to be released that afternoon.

A restraining order bans him from contacting his victim or her son for eight years.

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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.  

To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk

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