Man ‘bit ex partner’s chin’
Bradley Paley smashed his ex with a dog bowl then bit her chin and ‘ragged her like an animal’ in an orgy of jealous violence at her home near Abingdon.
The 29-year-old made what his victim labelled an ‘evil promise’, telling her he would scar her so ‘no one else will have you, no one else will ever find you attractive’.
In a victim personal statement, Paley’s ex said she was reminded of the assault every time she looked at her dog Rocky’s water bowl. “I feel anxious all the time. I feel like I’m scared of my own shadow.”
She had started self-defence classes, she said: “He beat me to within an inch of my life and I don’t want to go through that ever again.”
READ MORE: Jealous thug hit ex with dog bowl in terrifying 7 hour attack
'Love rival' pistol whipped in car park
Coventry man Rihards Mezinieks pistol whipped his supposed love rival in the car park of a Bicester trampoline centre.
Sending him down for more than three years in February, Judge Maria Lamb told Rihards Mezinieks: “You were clearly motived by revenge.”
Mezinieks, 37, denied making plans to lure the man, who he thought had struck up a relationship with his estranged wife, to the Bicester trampoline park where he’d bought tickets for his wife and sons.
But those denials were rejected by Judge Lamb at a hearing at Oxford Crown Court, when she ruled that he’d put significant planning into his revenge attempt.
She said: “In my view it is no coincidence you arrived two minutes before the start of the children’s session at the centre and you sat in that vehicle accompanied by two other men.
“I have little hesitation in coming to the conclusion that this was no spontaneous encounter. It was pre-planned and significantly pre-planned.
“And when [the victim] came upon the scene, as you were confident he would do, you got out of that car to terrorise then assault him.”
READ MORE: Dad of two who pistol whipped his 'love rival' in trampoline park car park
Wifebeater who ran ‘ludicrous’ stranger attack defence
Dwain Tyrrell, 21, punched his then girlfriend in the face in September 2019 despite being subject to both a restraining order and bail conditions banning contact with his partner.
At his trial in January, 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 in February, 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.”
He described Tyrrell’s defence to the ABH charge as ‘ludicrous’.
READ MORE: Thug punched ex in the face then made up 'ludicrous' story
Bank transfers formed part of 'campaign' of harassment
‘Relentless’ ex Alexander Colson sent his former partner tiny sums of money via online bank transfer with references including the words ‘I love you’.
A day after he sent the money, his former partner opened her front door to find a bouquet of flowers on her doorstep.
Despite being arrested by the police then later released under investigation, he continued to breach the restraining order.
Jailing him for two-and-a-half years in March, Recorder John Bate-Williams described Colson’s behaviour as a ‘despicable and relentless campaign’ against his ex-partner.
He noted that the pre-sentence report compiled by the probation service found that Colson showed little remorse.
Summarising the report, the judge said: “You’ve gone through the motions but you don’t seem to have any interest in really tackling your harassment.”
READ MORE: Banbury man sent his ex cash with words 'I love you'
Ex-partner stabbed in the head
George Hassall, 22, rained down punches and kicks on his former partner before pulling out a 6cm folding knife an plunging it towards her forehead.
The vicious attack in Reading last November could have been worse had the victim not used her hands to prevent her ex from stabbing her in the neck, prosecutor Matthew Knight told Oxford Crown Court in March.
She received five stab wounds, including three to her head and two to her hands. In all, she required 26 stitches and was left with permanent scars as a reminder of what Hassall did to her. Her skull was fractured.
In a victim personal statement read to the court by Mr Knight, she said: “I feel what has happened has ruined my life. I was attacked in the street, in broad daylight. I don’t feel safe anymore. How can I?”
Hassall admitted wounding with intent and possession of the knife. Judge Michael Gledhill KC sent him down for two years and eight months.
READ MORE: Man, 22, stabbed former partner in the head
Dad broke own baby’s bones
Ryan Briston was jailed for 28 months in July for breaking his baby son’s bones.
The 27-year-old eventually confessed to handling the boy ‘roughly’, claiming that he’d been stressed and working night shifts at a local hotel.
Doctors who examined the boy when he was brought into the John Radcliffe Hospital in August 2020 after being discovered unresponsive and ‘blue’ found he had at least five fractures.
The injuries, which were sustained at different times, were consistent with the baby having been ‘shaken or swung’, doctors said.
READ MORE: Heartbreaking cruelty of dad who broke son’s bones then took months to come clean
Thug laughed after setting fire to partner
Michael Lincoln, 56, laughed after setting fire to the liquid – believed to be vodka – that he’d just poured over his then partner’s leg in Oxford.
He told detectives he had done it as she knew how to ‘push his buttons’ - and claimed she had encouraged him to do it.
The court heard that although the woman, who at the time thought she might be pregnant with Lincoln’s child, told him ‘go on then, do it’ she did not mean it.
The flames melted her jeans to her leg and, having ripped the trousers off, she was left with a serious burn. A medical report said one per cent of the burn, which covered 1.5 per cent of her body, had gone through all the layers of skin to the underlying flesh
Sending him to jail for three years and four months in July, Judge Nigel Daly said: “This was a particularly nasty offence that you committed, pouring whatever it was over your then partner’s leg, setting it on fire and sitting back and laughing.”
READ MORE: Abuser set fire to partner's leg and laughed in 'nasty' attack
‘Heartless’ son stole mum’s cash
Derek Moffitt, 70, took more than £70,000 from his mum’s bank accounts after he was given power of attorney over her affairs when she went into a care home.
The woman, who is in her 90s, said in a victim personal statement read to the court: “I trusted him and he took advantage of me. I thought he would take care of me but instead he has knocked me flat.”
Judge Michael Gledhill KC jailed him for two years and four months in June, telling the defendant: “A message has to go out to people who have control over other people’s financial affairs that if they abuse it the consequences are very serious indeed.”
READ MORE: 'Heartless' son stole £70k from elderly mum while she was in care home
Baby attacked by his own dad
Dad Dwayne Gordon was handed a 40 month prison sentence in June for assaulting his then 17-month-old son.
The boy had been taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital in January 2019 with injuries to his face.
Dr Janet Craze, the A&E doctor who examined the child, told Gordon’s trial in May that a slap mark to the boy’s face was ‘something, sadly, all paediatricians have seen before’.
Concerns about the injuries on his face and neck led doctors to commission more extensive tests, including x-rays that showed the boy had broken the arm bones near both wrists at some stage in the past weeks.
READ MORE: Jail for dad who subjected son to awful assaults
Queen Elizabeth stuntman jailed
Stuntman Gary Connery, 53, shoved his then girlfriend down the stairs at the home they shared in Henley on October 24, 2020.
It followed an argument over who would ‘turn off the lights and shut the gate’. The woman suffered a ‘shattered’ shoulder and a cut above her eye.
The professional stunt man dressed in a shimmering pink frock and wig when he acted as Queen Elizabeth’s stand-in during an infamous jump from a helicopter during the opening ceremony to the Olympic Games in 2012.
Jailing him for 18 months in August, Judge Nigel Daly said: “I have read in some detail the [probation service] pre-sentence report it is abundantly clear from that pre-sentence report that you show absolutely no remorse for what happened and you do not seem to accept any fault.”
READ MORE: Olympics stuntman Gary Connery jailed for pushing girlfriend downstairs
Underwear ripped to shreds
Murtaza Ahmed ripped his former girlfriend’s underwear to pieces then posted a copy of the Karma Sutra through her mother’s letter box.
The 32-year-old had followed his former partner into her flat in Rose Hill, Oxford, then after she fled to her mum’s house set about ransacking the woman’s property.
He was jailed for 27 months in October, when Judge Michael Gledhill KC said: “It beggars belief how you could lower yourself to behave in that way to a person that you loved.”
READ MORE: Abusive ex ripped up former girlfriend's underwear
Flowers at salon
Jilted Martin Evans swamped his ex with telephone calls and even left flowers at the hair salon where she worked.
In October, Judge Michael Gledhill KC told the company director from Henley, whose 14 previous convictions include offences of breaching restraining orders: “If you were 16 years old, your behaviour during those eight days in August would have led your parents to tell you to stop being pathetic.
“Your behaviour was completely intolerable.”
Evans, who admitted stalking when he was before the magistrates’ court, was given a two year suspended prison sentence.
READ MORE: 'Pathetic' stalker left flowers at victim's hair salon
Baby son’s brain injury
RAF engineer Richard Hardwick, based at the Benson air base, left his three-month old son with life-changing brain injuries.
But the dad could only be jailed for three years and nine months, as he was charged with causing grievous bodily harm – rather than a more serious offence.
Sentencing judge Recorder John Hardy KC said the decision to charge him with GBH ‘sticks in my gut’.
In November, he imposed the maximum sentence once credit for his early guilty plea was deducted.
Recorder Hardy said: “The single count on the indictment to which you have pleaded guilty compels me to sentence you to a term of imprisonment that members of the public would rightly regard as woefully inadequate for this horrific crime.
“I am at a loss to understand why other, more serious charges were not preferred against you.”
READ MORE: Dad caused baby son life-changing injuries
‘Nasty piece of work’
Spencer Beel was described as a ‘thoroughly nasty, unpleasant piece of work’ by Judge Michael Gledhill KC in November.
The 25-year-old from Oxford was jailed for 42 months for a catalogue of offending, including the harassment of his former partner.
He was arrested and subsequently charged with allegations dating back to 2015 of controlling behaviour towards his partner, the mother of his two children, as well as with assaulting her and damaging a TV.
Then, while on bail for the offences, he was said to have begun a campaign of stalking.
He bombarded her with phone calls, repeatedly turned up at her home and demanded – successfully, on occasion – that she withdraw her police statements. In one demand, he asked: “What have you told police? I’m going to ruin you. I’m going to get your benefits stopped.”
Beel also trolled her social media account, setting up fake profiles designed to humiliate her and posting her personal contact details on videos she had posted.
READ MORE: 'Nasty piece of work' threatened to get ex's benefits stopped
‘Brought up to slap a woman’
Scott Hadlow bragged that he had been ‘brought up to slap a woman’ – in a letter to his victim sent after he was jailed for beating her up.
As it happened, Hadlow was prosecuted and defended by female barristers in December – and the judge who sent him to prison for two years was a woman.
Judge Maria Lamb coolly observed about his boast that he did not believe it was ‘wrong’ to hit a woman: “Let me put you right on that one. It isn’t.”
Hadlow had 150 previous offences on his record, including for harassing the partner to whom he had written from prison.
READ MORE: Wifebeater bragged he was brought up 'to slap a woman'
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