Dad turned off lights and locked door before battering girlfriend with metal pole
A dad desperate for a drugs fix attacked his ex partner on the street before locking her in her own home and attacking her.
David Todd punched his then-girlfriend to the back of the head after they had both gone out to buy drugs, on July 14, of last year. She was knocked to the ground and he threw her bag over a fence, before pushing her away.
Todd, 36, then knocked his partner to the ground again, and kicked her arms out from underneath her, meaning her chin hit the pavement. He didn't stop the attack until a member of the public stepped and told him to "leave her alone."
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Todd's normal dealer had sold out of drugs, so he went on to find another. Meanwhile, his partner fled, locking herself in her home so he couldn't get in - however, she realised a front door key was missing. Todd let himself in, turned the lights off and locked the front door.
He repeatedly punched his girlfriend in the head, and as she was curled up in a ball on the floor, he got hold of a metal hoover pole and used it to hit her all over her body and face. The woman tried to escape out of a window, but he dragged her back in by her hair and tried to strangle her - while repeatedly telling her he would "f****** kill her."
Peter Sabiston, prosecuting, told the court that the woman may have lost consciousness, as the next thing she remembers was running from the house and the police talking to her, moments later. They took her back home, only to find that Todd had smashed up her furniture and possessions.
The victim was rushed to hospital, when the police noticed her head had started to swell. She was kept in for four days.
On Monday, Todd listened via video link as the survivor read her victim impact statement out in court: "He beat me three times that night and it wasn't the first time he's been violent. He strangled me. He used a hoover pipe to beat me. The doctor said that if he had hit me a few more times, I would have been dead."
Todd, now of Overcombe Way in Redcar, pleaded guilty to:
assault;
assault occasioning actual bodily harm;
intentional strangulation;
making threats to kill;
criminal damage.
In mitigation, Nikki Horton said her client had "not tried to apportion the blame on anyone but himself. He is heartedly, heartedly ashamed of himself."
Judge Richard Bennett told Todd: "You knew she was physically weaker. You left her with a suspected bleed on the brain, and extensive bruising all over her face and body. She was frightened in her own home." Todd was jailed for four years and six months and was made the subject of an indefinite restraining order prohibiting him from contacting his victim.