Nottinghamshire man punched new girlfriend when she saw him urinating on lawn

Joe McCann had recently started seeing the woman and had moved into her home almost immediately, Mansfield Magistrates’ Court was told on Wednesday, March 18.

They had been in a relationship when they were teenagers which they had rekindled shortly before the incident on December 28.

Prosecuting, Donna Fawcett said: “They used to be in a relationship until six years ago when they were 17. In 2019 they started dating again and he moved in very quickly. On Christmas Eve he called her at work and had clearly been drinking.

“He said that he had no meaning in his life, was shouting and then hung up on her. She then got a call from her sister saying that he had punched a hole in the living room door.

“On December 28 they were at a family party and he spilled a drink on her. She politely asked him to be careful and he got up and left.

“She followed him outside and saw him jump over a fence and start urinating on the lawn of a neighbouring property.”

Neighbours witnessed McCann, aged 24, of Carlton Road, Worksop, then throw his cap into the street and sit down, hoping a car would run him over, and when she went to try to get him back onto the pavement he violently swung her around, the court heard.

In a statement made by the victim, she described how she had started to walk away when McCann had attacked her.

“He used both hands to grab my hair and spun me round, he punched me in the face with his left and right fists, and he claimed that I had punched him first,” said Mrs Fawcett.

“She says she has known him for about a month and she says that her sister is scared of him and her family now hate him.”

McCann, a self-employed plasterer, admitted assault and threatening behaviour when he appeared before the court.

Mitigating, Fiona Davidson said that McCann had been suffering from depression but had felt better when the relationship started and had stopped his medication.

“He had been living in Langwith where his family had been concerned about him,” she said. “It was a very bad area and he was suffering from depression. In relation to what took place, he had been drinking and that had escalated the depression.”

District Judge Jonathan Taaffe gave McCann a six-week curfew between 7pm and 6am, and ordered him to pay £100 in compensation, £85 costs and a £90 victim surcharge.

Sentencing him, he said: “If you behave like this again you will go to prison. This is violence against someone you cared about. This is drink-fuelled and when you drink you become a different person.”

He also gave McCann a three-year restraining order, preventing him from contacting his victim.