Prison for thug (30) who tried to strangle partner

A THUG who tried to strangle his partner and spat on a police officer has been handed a threemonth jail sentence.

But because Brendan Joseph Anthony Kelly (30) has already served a two-and-a-half-month sentence on remand, he will soon be freed.

Kelly appeared at Newry Magistrates Court, sitting in Lisburn, via video-link from Maghaberry Prison yesterday.

Kelly, with an address on the Donegall Road in Belfast, entered guilty pleas to assaulting his partner and stealing her mobile phone on April 21, and a further charge that he assaulted a police officer on May 4.

The court heard Kelly initially called police to claim he had been assaulted by his partner “and that she had begun shouting for help” before hanging up.

Officers could not find either Kelly or his partner but a prosecuting lawyer told the court that a neighbour reported that Kelly’s partner was at their home “in a distressed state and that the defendant had attempted to strangle her”.

“When police spoke to her she was very upset, with red marks around her throat,” said the lawyer.

She told police Kelly had woken her up, the court heard, and when she asked where he had been “he began to strangle her with both hands, pushed her to the floor and held her down until she managed to free herself and run to a neighbour’s house”.

It transpired that Kelly had taken her phone so police called it and Kelly answered, claiming he would “hand himself in the next day”.

However, police were not able to find him until May 4 when officers in Belfast city centre spotted him getting into a taxi.

Kelly ended up being taken to hospital for treatment, but while there he “became aggressive and abusive to hospital staff ”. When he was handcuffed he turned around and spat on a police officer, the court heard.

Defence solicitor Garrett Greene urged District Judge Amanda Henderson to sentence Kelly for common assault “rather than anything more serious”. Ms Henderson, highlighted, however, that High Court judges had recently ruled choking or strangulation “is certainly an aggravating feature” and, despite the lawyer’s argument, “it’s been opened on that basis and there were red marks around her throat”.

Jailing Kelly, District Judge Henderson revealed that he had a “very relevant record” with seven convictions for assault since 2014. She added that this latest offence “definitely crosses the custody threshold.”