Man throttled and punched his ex during horrific attack

HE ALSO ADMITTED THREATS WITH MACHETE

A YOUNG Derby dad grabbed his partner around the throat and throttled her until she could not breathe during a horrific assault in her home.

Derby Crown Court heard how Luke Toyne also spat in her face and punched her before banging her head against a wall after dragging her out of bed.

At the time he had a restraining order not to contact the woman but she let him back into her flat despite him being convicted of stalking her. And months earlier Toyne was involved in a street fight which saw him pull out a machete and push it through the window of a car.

Jailing him for a year, Judge Shaun

Smith QC said: “You have got some growing up to do ... and you are going to have to do a bit of it in prison because you are 20 years old and you have already demonstrated you are someone that easily loses their temper, particularly with this young woman. She let you back into her home and you abused that trust she had shown in you by hitting her.

“It was terrible, you were spitting at her, punching her on the floor and putting her into a headlock until she could not breathe. It is a nasty incident.”

Sarah Slater, prosecuting, said the first incident took place in the street, in Kemble Place, Alvaston, at around 6.45pm on September 20, 2021. She played CCTV footage which showed cars arrive in the cul de sac, people get out and Toyne begin fighting with a shirtless man who has never been identified or prosecuted. The footage showed Toyne waving a machete and pushing it through a car window.

Miss Slater said after being arrested, charged and bailed for that offence Toyne committed the second offences. She said: “She (the victim) describes being in a relationship with the defendant since they were 15, they have a son together and she describes being frightened of him because he loses his temper.

“He had been staying with her at her address and she describes (in mid-April of this year) him waking her up in the middle of the night, making her go into the living room where he spits in her face. She pushed him away but said that made him more angry, he grabbed her by the hair and put her in a headlock with his arms wrapped around her neck.

“He was covering her mouth and she could not breathe but managed to struggle free and he punched her to the face. He got her arms above her head and banged her head against a wall.”

Miss Slater said the victim was able to raise the alarm with neighbours and Toyne, of Duffield Road, was arrested. He pleaded guilty to charges of threatening another with a bladed article in relation to the machete incident and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, criminal damage and breaching a restraining order in relation to the incident with his then partner.

Toyne appeared over a video link from HMP Brinsford for his sentencing hearing. Judge Smith handed him a fresh two-year restraining order not to contact the woman or go to the street where she lives in the Stockbrook area of the city. Justin Ablott, mitigating, said: “He is 20 years of age and he knows he’s got a little bit of growing up to do, the relationship is not a healthy one for either party and he has no plans for that relationship to begin again.”