Bodybuilder who tried to strangle lover spared jail
Thug is sent to ‘relationship lessons’
A BODYBUILDER who tried to strangle his girlfriend before breaking her nose has been spared jail – and told to go on a ‘ building better relationships’ course instead.
Mark Pelz beat ‘ vulnerable’ Gemma Carr, 26, in a jealous rage after another man commented on her Facebook page.
But despite having a string of previous convictions for violence, the 41- year- old was given a suspended sentence and told to attend group sessions designed to build ‘strategies for appropriate behaviour’.
Campaigners accused the judge of ‘taking a risk’ with women’s safety. Sally Jackson of Standing Together Against Domestic Violence said: ‘The worry is, if this programme doesn’t work it will be another woman who is going to be harmed.’
Even Pelz, a father of three whose 17 previous convictions include a racist attack on a female soldier, seemed to think he would be jailed. Three days before the hearing, he posted a Facebook picture of himself shirtless and showing off his muscles, captioned: ‘Power ready for jail.’
Bournemouth Crown Court heard Pelz, who has tattoos on his face and once used a picture of notorious prisoner Charles Bronson as his Facebook profile picture, attacked Miss Carr in April 2013 after losing his temper over the other man’s comment beneath her photo on the social media site.
Prosecutor Janice Brennan said the ‘ controlling’ bodybuilder demanded his number and called him. When the man described him as a ‘bully’ he tried to strangle Miss Carr, punched her, threw her to the floor and kneed her in the face, fracturing her nose. His girlfriend, described as ‘vulnerable’ and ‘dependent’, initially told police she did not want him to go to prison. Pelz attacked her a second time at their home in Bournemouth on June 18 last year.
A neighbour called police after hearing screaming. Miss Carr suffered bruising to her arms. She has since moved away from the area and now lives under a different name, the court heard.
Pelz, from Amesbury in Wiltshire, admitted one count of causing actual bodily harm and another of common assault. His previous offences include punching the female soldier three times in the face. He was also once convicted of causing grievous bodily harm after fracturing a victim’s eye socket. In mitigation, Tim Akers said Pelz had a difficult childhood and was physically abused by his father before being raised in foster homes.
Judge Jonathan Fuller sentenced Pelz to 24 months in jail, suspended for two years for the two attacks. He described his record as ‘appalling’ and the attacks as ‘disgraceful’. And he admitted that some might feel he was taking a ‘lenient approach’.
Judge Fuller told the bodybuilder: ‘You have got a chance. It is up to you what you do with it.’
The decision angered anti-domestic violence campaigners. Women’s Aid chief executive Polly Neate said: ‘Strong sentences are essential to show perpetrators that society and the law take their violence seriously.’
Building better relationships courses are run by local community rehabilitation firms. They involve group sessions once or twice a week plus five one-to-one sessions.
The aim is to ‘ enable men to acknowledge the abuse they have perpetrated and its effect on others’.