Man threatened to spray battery acid in his ex’s face

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A jealous father threatened to spray battery acid in his ex-girlfriend’s face after discovering she was seeing another man.

Kevin Bowman, 30, bumped into the mum of his two children at The Cuban nightclub in Canterbury by chance, a court heard.

He approached her at the bar and verbally abused her when he saw her talking to a man.

He then snatched her phone from her in Mcdonald’s after the pair had been kicked out of the city centre venue.

The victim left with her friend and went home in a taxi, but Bowman turned up at her flat after reading sexual messages from a man she was seeing.

Prosecuting, Neil Sweeney told Folkestone Magistrates’ Court how Bowman was shouting and swearing and refused to return the phone.

The woman fell asleep, forgetting to lock the front door.

Bowman returned at 8.30am the next day, shouting at her to wake up and spitting in her face three times.

Mr Sweeney, reading the victim’s statement, said: “He’s been violent to me in the past and I didn’t know what to do.

“He said he would spray battery acid in my face. He said he would put it in my face so he couldn’t look at me. “I just felt shocked, I was numb. “It upset me that someone I once loved and someone who loved me was able to do this. I don’t feel safe.”

Three days later, on September 26, the court heard the vic- tim went to try to get her phone back from Bowman in London Road, Dover.

The confrontation continued in a queue at a nearby post office, where Bowman again spat at the woman.

Magistrates heard Bowman had been given a restraining order in December after another assault charge on his ex-partner in June and was on bail for those offences when the incidents in September took place.

He pleaded guilty to four charges – two of racially aggravated assault, theft and sending an offensive and menacing message.

Probation officer David Mowbray told the court that Bowman was “ashamed” at the words he used and the threats he made.

He said: “He was remorseful about the battery acid com- ments. He was ashamed of them and said he would never have done it.”

Bowman was given 320 days in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered to carry out 240 hours of community work.

He was also placed under a two-year restraining order, with chairman of the bench Sarah Poole warning him he was “a hair’s breadth” from jail.

She said: “You’ve clearly terrorised your ex-partner.

“If it weren’t for your business and the contributions to your children you would be going to prison.

“You are a busy working man and it’s probably the only thing that saved you from an immediate prison sentence.”

Bowman was also ordered to pay £1,019 in costs and compensation for the theft of the phone.

Kevin Bowman was told he was a “hair’s breadth” from jail