Woman unconscious after thug’s beating
AVIOLENT thug smashed his way into a woman’s house and beat her unconscious in front of her eldest child in a despicable attack on Mother’s Day in Runcorn.
Michael Rawlinson, 34, of Kestrels Way, Hallwood Park, Runcorn, turned up at Kerry Rigby’s home on Laburnum Grove, on Sunday, March 22, where he ‘completely lost control’.
Matthew Curtis, prosecuting at Chester Crown Court last Thursday, said Rawlinson was dressed in fluorescent work clothes and carrying at least one metal implement when he arrived at the home of his brother’s ex-partner Kerry Rigby at around 11am.
Miss Rigby and her children heard ‘banging on the front door’ and saw the defendant, who ‘appeared to be trying to get in’.
She told him ‘you’re not coming in’, and her children asked if the man was ‘daddy’ and then hid upstairs when they realised it was someone else.
Rawlinson smashed the front door and accused Miss Rigby of being ‘interfering’ and used a term of abuse, prompting Miss Rigby to ring her mother and urged her to call the police.
Miss Rigby’s mother was worried as Rawlinson was a ‘big fella, over sixfoot and of a stocky, large build’.
Raging Rawlinson, who had brought metal implements with him to break in, smashed his way in through the back door and in the horrified sight of Miss Rigby’s eldest daughter punched Miss Rigby at least twice, and she could feel blood in her mouth and believes she soon lost consciousness.
The terrified youngster, only seven years old, rang her grandmother and said her mum was ‘dead’.
Mr Curtis said: “The complainant’s eldest daughter telephoned her nana Doreen and told her that the complainant was dead.
“She thought her mum was dead because ‘it all went quiet’.
“By now the children were hiding under the bed.
“She then saw her mum had blood on her face and had a black eye.
“Doreen Rigby later read a message which just said ‘hurry’.”
Their grandmother rang 999 at 11.08am and police arrived within around nine minutes.
When Miss Rigby woke up ‘gasping for breath, she crawled upstairs and found the children in the bedroom, terrified’.
They found Rawlinson in the back garden harming himself with a knife he said he had taken from the house, and he turned ‘aggressive’ and abusive.
When Rawlinson’s girlfriend arrived and tried to calm him down, he resisted and said: “There is nothing left for me to live for now is there.”
He told her to go away because he did not want her to see him kill himself.
Police tried to subdue him with incapacitant ‘Captor’ spray, which made him drop the knife, but needed a second dose of the substance to persuade Rawlinson to calm down.
Rawlinson was found with horizontal cuts to his arm, but tried to blame one injury on his arm on his victim.
Firearms officers treated his injuries, and the defendant was later arrested in hospital.
When officers first arrived the defendant’s father, who lived nearby, told the police ‘don’t go in there because he will probably knock f*** out of you’.
Inside the house, police found the front and back door windows smashed and a ‘substantial amount of blood on the kitchen floor’ which was the defendant’s.
Police found a metal ratchet tool in the entry to the house with blood splatters on it, and a metal bar in the hall had Rawlinson’s DNA and impacted glass from the window in it.
Miss Rigby, who had been knocked unconscious until she stirred awake lying on the living room floor, was taken to Warrington Hospital and her children were taken to a neighbour’s house.
In interview, Rawlinson gave ‘no comment’ and was initially charged with attempted murder, but later pleaded guilty on May 29 to burglary with intent to commit grievous bodily harm (GBH) and assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH), on the basis that he punched Miss Rigby twice and had held back from his initial intent of more serious harm.
Mr Curtis said Miss Rigby suffered ‘extensive bruising’ to her right eye area and socket, bruising on her face and neck along the right side, and tension in her neck that Judge Steven Everett, presiding, described as a ‘whiplash type injury’.
In victim personal statements, summarised by Mr Curtis, Miss Rigby said she became fearful of loud noises and suffered flashbacks, and her injuries made it difficult to move around because of the whiplash-like tension.
She also attributed an injury to her tongue to the attack. In addition, Miss Rigby had been unable to return to her house and had to move.
The incident stemmed from an allegation in which Miss Rigby told Rawlinson’s partner that he had been unfaithful to her.
Rawlinson had told the woman that Miss Rigby was ‘just trying to get in her head’ and denied the claims.
The court heard Rawlinson had previous convictions including Section 18 GBH with intent in 2008, as well as disorderly conduct, affray, and assaulting police officers.
His most recent conviction was for criminal damage in 2017.
Jeremy Rawson, defending Rawlinson, said the father-of-three had mental health issues, suffers depression, which worsened when his sister died while he was in prison.
Mr Rawson said Rawlinson had previously been sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
He also pleaded mitigation for his guilty pleas and for a shorter sentencing under the ‘Manning’ principle, referring to a case in the Court Of Appeal which allows for sentences to be reduced to reflect the harsher conditions of prison during the coronavirus pandemic.
Rawlinson left school at 16 and had obtained qualifications and was last working as a docker.
Judge Everett ordered a charge of making threats to kill denied by Rawlinson to be recorded as a not guilty verdict.
After reducing his sentence for Rawlinson’s guilty pleas and the Manning principle, Judge Everett sentenced Rawlinson to 37 months in prison in total, or three years and one month.
Sending Rawlinson down, Judge Everett said: “Whatever had passed between Kerry Rigby and your partner concerning your sort of domestic issue between you and your partner, you should have given some thought as to was it right – and it clearly wasn’t – to confront Kerry Rigby as you did in the manner as you did.
“You went round to her house, you had some pieces of metal with you.
“I’m not going to sentence you on the basis you intended to attack her with those.
“What you have to look at, and what I’m looking at here is, is a big strong man who completely lost his self control, smashing his way into somebody’s house where there was a woman and three young children.”
He added: “It must have been a truly awful experience, truly awful.”