A man who throttled a teenager in what a judge branded ‘post-marriage mayhem’ will be sentenced in October.
Jonathan Waite, 48, of Dodworth, near Barnsley, was found guilty by the magistrates earlier this summer of intentional strangulation and assault by beating, who committed him to the crown court for sentencing.
He had attacked the teen girl after a wedding in West Oxfordshire last October.
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Defending, Jonathan Stone asked a judge at Oxford Crown Court to adjourn the sentence so his client’s solicitors could look into possible mental health issues faced by the defendant.
He pointed the judge to comments in a pre-sentence report, with Waite telling the probation officer who wrote the report that he thought he would be unable to change.
He believed he had ‘no choice’ but use violence in some circumstances, it was said, although work he had done with the probation service in the past had helped him ‘walk away’ when he felt angry.
The judge, Recorder John Bate-Williams, said he could not see how the passages in the pre-sentence report had ‘any bearing at all’ on the sentencing.
He said the issues raised by Mr Stone were ‘potentially relevant to support and treatment’ rather than affecting his ‘criminal liability’.
Recorder Bate-Williams added: “If the defendant wishes to have a delay and the expense of further expert evidence, I am with some degree of hesitation prepared to grant the adjournment.”
He told the defendant not to be under ‘any illusions’ and bailed him to return to court on October 6.
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