Drunk man’s threat to kill his girlfriend
PREGNANT WOMAN HAD TWO OF HER TEETH KNOCKED OUT
A DRUNK man who threatened to kill his pregnant girlfriend before knocking out two of her teeth has been jailed.
Shane Gibson, 41, had been drinking heavily in Ye Olde Blue Bell in Hull city centre before an argument with his then partner on October 15 last year.
The couple had been texting before she confronted Gibson at his home in New Bridge Road, east Hull, at around 8pm that evening.
Hull Crown Court heard Gibson dragged his girlfriend, who was five weeks pregnant at the time, into one of the bedrooms and threw her down.
‘I’m going to kill you,” he threatened. “You and the baby are going to die.”
Gibson used his knees to pin his partner down and she screamed.
“As she laid on the floor you sat on top of her,” said Recorder Mullarkey. “You put your hands around her throat and began choking her saying ‘you are not leaving this flat.’
“She bit you to try to get away and you then struck her with an open palm.”
The victim was able to flee the bedroom and make her way outside the flat but was dragged back inside by Gibson. ‘You are not leaving this flat,’ he said. A further struggle continued in the hallway of the property and as she made attempts to leave the premises again Gibson charged at her.
‘You are not leaving this flat,’ he repeated. ‘You are going to die tonight.’
Things are said to have “calmed down” after that point but as the victim left Gibson slammed the door trapping her left leg causing bruising to her left foot and shin. She also felt excruciating pain to her mouth and realised that during the course of the abuse two teeth had been knocked out.
The victim went for an emergency dental appointment where it was found she had fractures to her teeth and was given treatment for the pain.
In a statement read out to Hull Crown Court she said she felt “petrified” and was “shocked” by what had happened.
“I thought he was going to kill me,” she wrote.
Gibson texted his partner after the assault saying: “You want to be around me, but why not report this. No man has the right to act that way. I don’t deserve you.”
When police arrived at Gibson’s flat officers found the victim’s teeth.
During interview Gibson claimed her injuries were sustained after he lost his balance on the stairs and put out his hand and grabbed the victim.
“That was an account you maintained up until trial,” said Recorder Mullarkey.
Gibson’s extensive criminal record was revealed to the court which included domestic violence offences against former partners and a conviction for inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent in 1999 which involved a 12-year-old boy.
Recorder Mullarkey said: “Your record shows a propensity for violence, particularly towards those weaker than you, whether it is a former partner or a 12-year-old boy.”
He reportedly told the probation service: “If she said something happened then it will have done. I know how scared and terrified she will have been and it makes me sick when I think about what I have done. I feel worse than terrible.”
However, Recorder Mullarkey was not convinced by Gibson’s show of remorse.
“She was a vulnerable victim,” said Record Mullarkey. “She was pregnant and trapped in your home. I do not accept that you have any genuine remorse. If you did you would not have waited to enter your guilty plea.
“This was a sustained domestic assault on a pregnant woman with you choking her and damaging her teeth on the background of a history of domestic disturbances.”
Recorder Mullarkey sentenced Gibson to a 30-month prison term for assaults occasioning actual bodily harm.