Yahoo News Jealous Devon thug pointed gun at ex and hit her with baseball bat
A jealous Devon man has been jailed for strangling and hitting his ex with a baseball bat during a drunken rage. Kallum Warren, 25, from Bideford, laughed while slapping the woman and ordered her to put her hands up while he pointed an air rifle.
He was angry after reading her text messages, a court heard. The judge said there was no excuse for his controlling behaviour and aggression.
The incident happened in the early hours of October 21. The pair had previously been in a short relationship and Warren invited the women over to his caravan in his mum's garden where he lived to talk about getting back together, said prosecutor Mr Ian Graham.
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But by 3am he was drunk and getting angry at messages he found on her phone. He pushed and grabbed the woman before hitting her in the face with a baseball bat.
Over several hours he pestered her about the messages and refused to hand her phone back. At one point he took an air rifle he kept in the cupboard and pointed it at the woman.
He ordered her to raise her hands and she covered her face while he discharged the weapon in another direction. It was not loaded and produced an "air shot" sound.
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"He slapped her on multiple occasions to the face," said the prosecutor. "She says about 20 times. Whilst doing it he was laughing."
Warren accidentally called the woman's stepfather who could hear her in distress. There was more violence when he arrived to help, with the pair grappling and Warren throwing punches. The victim and stepfather managed to drive away.
Warren, of Barton Tors, admitted three charges of assault causing actual bodily harm and one offence of possessing an imitation firearm with intent and was jailed for 18 months. The third assault happened later the same evening while Warren was still angry about the messages he had found on the woman's phone and attacked a man in the street.
Judge David Evans jailed him for 18 months. He said: "You had drunk a considerable amount of alcohol in the early hours of the morning and took her phone to look at her messages. You displayed the depressingly familiar controlling behaviour we see in young men day in these courts.
"You may have flown into a jealous rage but that is not an explanation. Your rage was totally unreasonable, full stop. You put your hands around her throat and squeezed. That caused her fear enough but you then struck her to the face with a baseball bat, leaving her with obvious bruises."
He said Warren, a construction site worker, had a job waiting for him, was sorry and showed some insight into his offending. It was also out of character and he has been diagnosed with PTSD, depression and anxiety.
But the incidents were too serious to suspended the sentence.
