Mansfield man interrupted vicious attack on partner for cigarette and suggested she should hang herself
A Mansfield man who "calmly and callously" interrupted a vicious attack on his partner to have a cigarette and suggested she should hang herself has been sentenced.
Anthony Fay verbally abused the woman when she refused to turn up the heating and told her he would gladly kick the chair away before hitting her in the face, said Philip Cowburn, prosecuting.
He followed her around saying, “Watch what you are going to get now,” and forcing her to curl into a ball on the sofa.
He got on top of her, used the full force of his weight to push his knee into her neck and punched her twice in the stomach.
“Calmly and callously he left to go and have a cigarette,” said Mr Cowburn. “He threatened to break her legs and snatched her keys, telling her she had five minutes to go to the shop.”
She ran out, pursued by him, and sought refuge at her parents' home where he turned up a short time later “as he promised” and demanded to be let in.
Her little finger was broken in the attack but Fay denied any wrong doing and said it was lawful self defence.
In a statement his ex-partner said she had been a victim of domestic violence for two years and was “absolutely terrified” of seeing him again.
Nottingham Crown Court heard their relationship deteriorated into physical and emotional abuse within months and he had previously assaulted her by wrapping his arm around her neck and pulling her onto a bed.
Andrew Wesley, mitigating, said Fay apologised for turning up drunk in court the previous week and was ashamed of his actions.
Since the attack he has found housing, weened himself away from hard drugs, and observed bail conditions, he added.
Fay, 37, now of Wigman Road, Nottingham, admitted criminal damage, assault, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, between October 2022 and March 2023, on the day of his trial.
On Tuesday Judge Michael Auty KC told him it was “deeply unpleasant bullying behaviour” which “no man worthy of the name ever inflicts.”
He handed him 18 months, suspended for two years, with 150 hours of unpaid work, and 20 rehabilitation days and a six-month drug programme.
A ten-year restraining order was imposed.