'Invincible' arrogant cowardly bully jailed for stabbing Portsmouth area partner, choking her and 'trying to bring her down'

Portsmouth Crown Court heard how the 26-year-old cocaine and alcohol abuser thought he was ‘invincible’ - and once swung for his then mum-of-two partner’s young daughter with a punch that hit to a wall.

The defendant, who cannot be named as it may identify the children, made his victim pass out by choking her - leaving one of her children to fear his mother was dead.

During their three-month relationship he stabbed the Portsmouth area woman in the back with scissors, stood on her ankle, and restricted her contact with friends.

Documenting her injuries by taking photographs on her phone, the victim bravely gathered enough evidence to go to police. But that did not stop him.

Prosecutor Michael Mason said the defendant had ‘threatened to put a grenade through (her) door’ after she reported him. He also banged on her door, and threatened to ‘get people down’ to harm her.

He called her from prison, circumventing her number being on a prison banned list by using an inmate’s phone.

He once told her: ‘You think you can snitch on me and get away with it? You need to be taught a lesson.’

Laughing and sneering at points on video-link from prison the defendant was told to be quiet or he would be forced to leave the sentencing hearing.

In a statement, the domestic violence perpetrator’s victim said: ‘He acted as if he was invincible and no order would stop him.’

Jailing him, Judge Timothy Mousley QC said it was ‘bad case of its type’, there was no mitigation, the crime had seriously affected his victim, the defendant had a ‘high culpability’, he tried to stop her reporting his actions and he had previous convictions for assaulting another partner.

The judge imposed a 44-month sentence for a charge of coercive control and witness intimidation.

The defendant admitted the charges on the morning of his trial. It meant he received a 10 per cent reduction from a four-year term. The maximum is five years.

Judge Mousley said: ‘Your behaviour, in my judgement, bears all the hallmarks of someone who is prepared frequently to commit assaults, sometimes serious assaults, on a woman and sometimes in front of her children.

‘And what you did was brutal, bullying and cowardly manipulation.

The judge added: ‘I’ve had the opportunity of seeing you today over the video link and the way that you’ve reacted to what is alleged against you, sometimes with laughter and very often with a display of arrogance. But you maintain you are remorseful.’

The defendant represents a high risk of serious harm to women, and of emotional, physical and psychological harm to the public in general.

A restraining order bans him from contacting the woman for life.

The judge added: ‘You were doing everything you could to bring her down, you even contacted her from prison.’

:: Call the 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247

:: Call Stop Domestic Abuse in Portsmouth (023) 9206 5494 or 0330 016 5112 for Hampshire residents.

:: Call Portsmouth Abuse Rape Counselling Service's helpines. Women can call (023) 9266 9511 and men can call (023) 9266 9516 on Monday 1pm-3pm, and Wednesday and Friday 7pm-10pm.

:: Call Aurora New Dawn on (023) 9247 9254.