East Belfast assault on ex partner left woman "slipping in and out of consciousness"

A jealous ex who beat up his former partner leaving her with “multiple lacerations and extensive bruising” was jailed for seven years today.

Dylan Robert Black, 26, of Kensington Mews, Lisburn, received a further three years on supervised licence on his release from prison after a judge found him to be a danger to the public.

Black had previously pleaded guilty at Belfast Crown Court to charges of grievous bodily harm with intent, threats to kill and threats to damage property. He further admitted three counts of common assault and one of resisting police.

Co-accused Danielle Elizabeth Carson, 36, from the Beersbridge Road in east Belfast, was handed a 45-month prison sentence suspended for three years after she pleaded guilty to charges of grievous bodily harm with intent and possessing an offensive weapon with intent.

It was the prosecution case that on the morning of June 30, 2021, Black had gained access to an apartment complex on the Beersbridge Road where his ex-partner lived and was assisted by his co-accused who also lived there.

Black met his victim in the hallway of the building and followed her upstairs and pulled her into a corner. She escaped and fled from the building with Black pursuing her onto the street.

The court heard the victim’s support worker had been alerted to Black’s behaviour and phoned the police. He observed the defendant “shouting at her, pointing his finger at her face and into her neck, grabbing her by the neck and violently pushing her up against a wall”.

Black noticed the support worker and made a threat to kill him. The victim was forced to return to her apartment by Black who then summoned his co-accused up to the flat and she was seen on CCTV concealing a small hammer inside her pyjama top before entering the victim’s flat. The court heard the victim was attacked by both defendants and a resident saw both leave the apartment.

CCTV showed the pair returning to Carson’s flat where she was seen putting the hammer back inside her top. A neighbour reported hearing Carson laughing and saying: “I told you I’d get you.”

Police arrived at the victim’s damaged flat and she was “bleeding, confused, slipping in and out of consciousness and vomited repeatedly”.

The PSNI took her to hospital and a CT brain scan showed soft tissue swelling in the skull along with bleeding and swelling in her front temporal lobe. She also sustained “multiple lacerations and extensive bruising to her body along with markings made by a shod foot”.

In a statement, the victim said she had limited recollection of the assault by her ex-partner and didn’t even know Carson and found it difficult to understand why she assaulted her.

Black has previous convictions for breaching non-molestation orders against his ex-partner along with convictions for common assault and criminal damage relating to her, the court heard.

The court heard that Black accepted that he kneed his victim to the face and that the assault was motivated by jealousy. Carson punched the victim twice to the face but the prosecution accepted she did not use the hammer during the assault.

Belfast Recorder Judge Patricia Smyth said: “This was clearly a serious incident and the victim has suffered a great deal.”

During police interviews, Black denied assaulting his ex-partner while Carson said the victim was attacked because she was “bringing Catholics to her flat”.

Imposing the extended custodial sentence, Judge Smyth said that at the halfway period of Black’s prison term, the Parole Commissioners would decide if it was safe to release him.

If he still remained a risk to the public, he will have to serve out the full seven years in prison followed by three years on licence.

The Belfast Recorder said she believed that there were exceptional circumstances in Carson’s case not to imprison her immediately given the “complete turnaround in your life” and there had been no further offending.

But Judge Smyth told Carson: “You deserve to go to prison. You deserve to be severely punished. And if you commit any further offences within the next three years, you will go to prison for the full amount of this sentence along with any other sentence the court passes. This is an exceptional course I am taking and I recognise that another judge may not take this course.”

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