‘Cowardly’ man left girlfriend with ‘atrocious’ injuries after he bashed her head offsideoftoilet
A DRUNK man who pushed his then partner on top of her baby before dragging her by the hair and banging her head off a toilet, causing “atrocious” injuries, has been branded a “coward” by a judge.
Niall Bradley (28), a lorry driver with an address at Beachlands in Carnlough, was in court for sentencing on charges of assaulting his former partner and breaking a window at her home at Cranny View in the County Antrim village.
A prosecutor said that on May 28 this year police received a report of a domestic assault after the injured woman had gone to a friend’s house for safety.
The injured woman was extremely distressed and she told police the defendant smashed a bedroom window with a gin bottle and then pushed her, causing her to land on top of her baby.
Bradley then tried to headbutt her before grabbing her by the hair and trailing her into the bathroom where he “bashed” her head off a toilet, causing injuries including bleeding.
Defence solicitor Stephen Law told Ballymena Magistrates Court yesterday that photos of the injuries were “atrocious”.
The lawyer said anything he told the court had to be taken in the context that it was “a disgraceful piece of behaviour” by Bradley which, he said, appeared to have “just come out of nowhere”. On the date in question he said his client was drunk, adding that it illustrated the dangers of that level of intoxication.
The defence lawyer said the woman was now the ex-partner of Bradley and that the defendant wished to apologise unreservedly. Mr Law continued that it was “bizarre and sad” to see a man of Bradley’s standing who had previously not “laid a finger” on his partner, acting in such an “aggressive and disgraceful manner”.
District Judge Nigel Broderick said it was “atrocious behaviour” and that photographs of the injured woman showed someone who had been the innocent victim of a “very nasty assault”.
“Beating up a female is a very cowardly thing to do,” the judge said.
He told the court that his initial inclination was to jail Bradley but there had been no rele- vant record and no reports of previous domestic violence.
Ordering the defendant to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and to pay £750 compensation to his ex-partner, the judge said if there was any breach of the Court Order Bradley would be sent to prison.