Spoon used to try to gouge out eye

A MAN tried to gouge his friend’s eye out with a spoon, a court heard.

Jamie Orr tried to put the spoon into his friend’s left eye socket after he fell asleep on the sofa.

The 41-year-old, who had been drinking and taken crack cocaine, then attacked his partner when she tried to intervene, leaving her with a bite mark and bruising to her face and arm.

The court heard Edwin Bratcher suffered “very serious” injuries, including extensive bruising and swelling to his face for which he needed hospital treatment.

In a victim impact statement read to Cardiff Crown Court, Mr Brancher said: “I awoke to him punching me in the face over and over again.

“He got a spoon and started putting it in my left eye socket, like he was trying to gouge my eye.”

The court heard Mr Bratcher managed to prise the spoon out of his grip and throw it away.

“The whole incident has made me scared, as it was completely unprovoked and out of the blue. It has scared me that anyone is capable of doing this,” he added.

The incident happened in the flat of Orr’s girlfriend Anne-Marie Walters on Tedder Close in Llanishen, Cardiff, on the afternoon of February 20.

Julian Greenwood, prosecuting, said the three were friends at the time and had been drinking together.

Prosecutors said Ms Walters went for a shower, leaving her friend asleep on the sofa, then returned to find her partner attacking him.

Prosecutors said that after attacking Mr Bratcher, Orr then went to the kitchen and got a knife. He assaulted Ms Walters when she tried to intervene.

In a statement given to police on the day, she said: “I don’t know how I am going to get over this. I feel like my world has come crashing down. I am scared to go back to my flat.”

The court heard Orr would not let police into the flat and an officer had to enter using a shield to protect himself.

Prosecutors said the defendant continued to resist and police had to use a Taser to bring him under control.

The court heard he was previously jailed in October 2015 for 16 months for assault occasioning actual bodily harm involving a samurai sword.

Prosecutors said he was with a group of friends in Ely and there was a samurai sword hanging on the wall. He attacked a friend, who suffered an injury to his head.

Orr, from Fitzhamon Embankment in Riverside, Cardiff, admitted two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

His barrister said he may have been driven by jealousy and had no memory of the incident.

The court heard he is now on medication for psychosis.

Orr was jailed for 20 months and a six-year restraining order was imposed.