Yahoo News Drunken boyfriend left woman with shocking injuries after attacking her with broom handle
A woman has spoken out after her boyfriend left her with shocking injuries while attacking her with a broom handle.
Samantha Jenkins, 33, a carer from Caerphilly in Wales, was beaten by her former partner Kevin Owen while he was in a drunken rage in their flat in November 2014.
He tried to gouge her eyes out with a broom handle, threw a television and an ashtray at her and tried to strangle her during the terrifying 90-minute long attack.
He knocked out her two front teeth and she needed stitches in her head.
At Cardiff Crown Court in July 2015, Owen was sentenced to nine years in prison for wounding with intent.
However, Ms Jenkins, a mother-of-one, says she is living in fear after being told he could be released as early as this May. She says he should not be allowed back into the town.
Ms Jenkins is now in another relationship with her new partner, Kyle, 32, but says she finds it difficult to trust men after the attack.
Speaking about Owen, she said: “I knew he wasn’t exactly ‘the one’ but I had no idea he would turn on me.
“I was fighting for my life when he attacked me – I could easily have died that night.
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“What he did has left me insecure and paranoid in my new relationship, I definitely have trust issues after what I’ve been through.
“Now he’s being released I’m even more terrified – it isn’t fair that he gets to come back to Caerphilly after what he did to me.”
She said Owen became jealous and controlling a few weeks into their relationship.
“He was always picking at me and he could be violent and aggressive – he’d hit me on previous occasions – but it got worse and worse the longer we were together, becoming a daily occurrence.
“On the night of the attack a friend was hanging out and drinking at the flat with us when Kevin started to get jealous and argumentative.”
She told the friend to leave, saying she would be fine, but was unaware he was about to attack her.
“I’d become quite numb to the abuse and didn’t expect anything truly bad to happen, but something changed in him that night. He wasn’t just shoving me around, he was giving it everything he had,” she said.
“He grabbed a mirror and hit me over the head with it, then he was on top of me and beating me with a broomstick.
“He was putting so much force into it that he literally snapped it in half – then he started trying to gouge out my eyes with the handle.
“I was fighting for my life, and it lasted for well over an hour, it was endless and I had no idea if I’d make it.
“Eventually, I spotted a piece of cracked mirror next to me on the floor and I hit him with it so he’d get off.
“I grabbed my phone and ran upstairs to call the police. He was still coming at me the whole time but was bleeding heavily, so combined with how much alcohol he’d drank he was a bit hazy.
“I even tried to get out of the bathroom window and was screaming for help, desperate for one of my neighbours to hear what was going on.”
Owen was arrested at the scene by police and an ambulance took Ms Jenkins to hospital.
She spent two days in Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil recovering and having scans to see if any bones were broken.
In court, she relived the attack by giving evidence via video link. Owen claimed he had been acting in self-defence.
She was told recently that Owen is set for release in May 2019 and is frightened he will move back to Caerphilly.
She said: “I can’t even imagine just bumping into him while I’m at the shops. He shouldn’t be allowed back, it just isn’t fair.
“I still have scars from that night. I’m not allowed to forget, so why should he?”
