Shocking moment violent thug headbutts partner in crowded pub captured on CCTV
A woman has shared how she will never enter a relationship again without looking into Claire's Law after her partner headbutted her in the middle of a busy pub in a sickening assault.
Lauren Queeley went to the pub one Friday night with her former partner, hoping for a fun evening of socialising. Instead, the night took a disturbing turn, resulting in a violent incident that left Lauren injured and bruised for weeks.
In the middle of the crowded venue, her then-boyfriend, Jonathan Landry, headbutted her with such force that she heard a crunch and ended up with a black eye. After bravely reporting the assault to the police, who described it as a “football headbutt,” Lauren was appalled to discover that she wasn’t the first woman Landry had harmed.
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Now, at 33, Lauren has chosen to share her story, along with CCTV footage of the assault, to encourage others to utilise Clare’s Law.
She told WalesOnline: “To me Clare’s Law is probably one of the best things that has ever come out for the safety of men and women. They will never outright tell you they are abusive or violent. I will never, ever enter a relationship again without doing Clare’s Law.”
Lauren explained how her relationship with Landry, now 34, began. “We met in the beginning of March 2023," she said. "It was like a whirlwind – it went really fast. We had been speaking in February, we met around March 10, and by March 19 we were official.”
Lauren explained that she was in a vulnerable emotional state at the time. In hindsight, she believes Landry sensed this and said what she wanted to hear to gain her trust.
She said: “He would compliment how I looked and my clothes, which is something I craved from a partner. He couldn’t do enough for me. The first time we met I laid all my cards on the table about my past traumas and vulnerabilities. It was as though he knew exactly what to say to get into my heart and head.
“He would tell me similar things had happened to him so that we had those things in common. That instantly made me feel a deeper connection – that he must understand how I’m feeling. I don’t know whether those things were fabricated or not.”
Lauren said gradually over the next few months she noticed that this behaviour intensified and took a more sinister turn. “He was good at saying things that would make him seem like a catch, that I was lucky to be with him. For example telling me that someone else had asked for his number or that another woman was flirting with him.
“He would say to me during arguments: ‘Do you know how lucky you are to have me?’ and: ‘If I wasn’t with you I could go out and get anyone I wanted’."
Several months into the relationship, Lauren noticed that Landry began drinking more, leading to frequent arguments. During these confrontations, she said he became verbally and physically abusive toward her.
She said: “We would both enjoy going to the pub on weekends but when he quit his job he started drinking during the week. I was working full-time so I wasn't joining him.
“Every time he got really drunk he would slap me and push me and he would say things that he knew would wind me up – such as c alling me the C-word and ‘rat’ – and then he would go up to bed. It was awful. About six months in I remember thinking: 'I am so unhappy'. I had lost so much weight and he had put a barrier between me and my family members.”
Lauren stated that, although she wasn't generally happy during their time together, the idea of leaving a volatile relationship felt overwhelming. She noted that Landry would go to great lengths to apologize and assure her it would never happen again, often convincing her that his behavior wasn't as bad as it seemed.
She said: “It’s really hard to leave because you hold onto those good times. These men are very good at making out that you’ve done something wrong to make them act how they have. And he would make me feel like ‘it was only a slap’, that it wasn’t a big deal because it left no marks.
“When we first split up I beat myself up that I didn’t see the signs but every abusive relationship is different and they have different ways of manipulating you. All I wanted was to be happy and on the two days out of seven that I was happy I would hold on to that. Looking back now – after being involved in the domestic violence project Freedom Project – I know it was never me even though I blamed myself.”
Lauren said the final straw came during the night between Friday, March 29, and March 30 this year – a year after they first met. It came following what should have been an enjoyable trip to the pub. Describing the events of that day she said: “We were at the Beachcomber pub in Porthcawl. We had met in a previous pub with my friends and he had kept his back to me the whole time. He wouldn’t speak to me or my friends.
“After my friends left we went to the Beachcomber and we had been in there for about an hour before he disappeared for 45 minutes. When he came back in I asked him where he had been. He called me a psycho.
“He was sitting on a chair and because it was loud I had to lean into him to hear what he was saying and then his whole face suddenly changed, his eyes changed, and he headbutted me. How I didn’t get knocked out I don’t know. I have blocked most of the incident out but I can remember a crunching noise when he headbutted me. T he pain was horrific. After it happened he walked away like nothing had happened.”
Lauren said instantly her face began to swell before she developed a black eye and bruising all over the right side of her face which lasted for five weeks. Following the incident Lauren said a friend walked her home where they found Landry. She said he was verbally abusive to her and wanted to go inside her house. Already in pain and refusing to take any chances she called the police.
“When the police looked at the CCTV – luckily the Beachcomber is covered in CCTV – they had it from all angles,” she said. “When the police came out to interview me they described it as a ‘football headbutt’. I have no idea how nobody else saw it – the pub was busy but we were in a quiet area.”
She said her injuries were so bad that she had to attend hospital. “I went to A&E because my face was so swollen I couldn’t open my mouth properly,” she said. “I couldn’t eat or drink. I could hardly speak.
“I was continuously sick and I had all the signs of concussion. When I went for an X-ray I was convinced my eye socket was broken because it was so swollen and painful.”
Lauren said it took a lot of strength to press charges against Landry who had convinced her so many times before that he was a good guy with her best interests at heart. Although police had enough evidence to go ahead and charge him she said it took her some time before she felt comfortable to open up to officers.
She said: “The day after it happened I was still in the whole: ‘I love him, he didn’t mean it’ mindset. I was thinking of excuses I could tell family and friends about why my face was the way it was. I hid all day and then my friend – who had walked me home the night before – rang me and said: You really are going to have to tell the truth – you can’t let someone do that to you.’
“It took me until 7.20pm the next evening to ring my mum and tell her what happened. She had come up earlier that day but I had pretended to be in the bath so I could hide my face from her.”
On October 8 Landry, of Heol Medw, Swansea, was sentenced at Swansea Magistrates’ Court for one count of actual bodily harm. Judge Murphy cited that Landry has nine convictions for 14 offences including an assault on a previous partner which resulted in a community order shortly before he met Lauren. She sentenced him to 16 weeks in prison and issued a restraining order which will prevent him from contacting Lauren for the next 24 months.
Lauren said she will never enter another relationship again without checking Clare’s Law and believes knowledge is power. “You might do Clare’s Law, learn something about your partner, and then continue that relationship,” she said. “But it is so, so important to have the power and knowledge to make that decision because 99% of abusers will never sit down and say: ‘I headbutted my girlfriend and went to prison for it.’”
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