Woman's phone punched into her face as she tried to film attacker

A 'frail' woman suffered a cut and bruise to her eye after her partner punched her phone as she held it up to film him assaulting her. The couple, who have a school-age daughter, were rowing about the child eating breakfast, a court heard.

As there was a history of domestic violence, the woman, who had health problems, took out her phone to get evidence of Artur Dyttwach attacking her and she suffered the injury. At Leicester Crown Court Dyttwach appeared for sentencing after admitting assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Prosecutor Steven Taylor told the judge, Recorder Adrian Reynolds, about the background to the incident, which happened in January 2023. He said: "They had met in Poland and been in a relationship for a number of years, moving to the UK together in 2015.

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"The complainant had medical issues in the latter years of the relationship and described mistreatment by her partner from 2019 onwards. On her account there's a background of some degree of domestic abuse.

"On the 16th of January last year there had been some difficulty getting their daughter ready for school and they had words about their daughter having to go to school without breakfast. He approached her and she felt his demeanour was aggressive and that he was going to assault her.

"She was holding her mobile phone to record him. He punched her, aiming towards her right eye, and his fist hit her hand, resulting in the phone striking her in the face.

"The daughter was upstairs and heard her mother shouting and crying out. When the defendant spoke to their daughter he said her mum was making things up."

Errol Ballantyne, representing Dyttwach, said his client took his daughter to school most mornings and was doing all he could to stay in her life. He said Dyttwach, of Bosworth Street, in the Tudor Road area of Leicester, worked as a delivery driver and had a variable income.

Recorder Reynolds gave Dyttwach an 18-month community order with a requirement to attend a 31-day Building Better Relationships course, warning him he would go to prison if anything similar happened again. He also ordered him to pay £500 towards court costs.

The judge said: "Your partner was a frail-looking woman suffering from a number of difficulties. You should have had them in mind when you punched her.

"It was an unpleasant injury to her eye. I've no reason to think you aren't a perfectly caring and considerate father, unlike the way you behaved towards your child's mother.

"I wonder what you will say to your daughter when she is a bit older and you have to explain why you split up with her mother."