‘IF YOU WANT TO CALL WELSH PEOPLE NAMES, STAY IN STOKE!’
Thug abused cops after assault on girlfriend
A JUDGE told a thug who attacked his partner and abused Welsh police officers to ‘stay in Stoke’.
David Betts, aged 29, had just assaulted his partner and was resisting arrest when he insulted the officers.
But a judge said: “If you want to call Welsh people names, stay in Stoke. Don’t bother coming to Wales.”
Betts, of Adamthwaite Close, Blythe Bridge, was jailed for a total of 24 months at Caernarfon Crown Court for offences including assault causing actual bodily harm against his partner Natasha Jones.
Prosecutor Brian Treadwell described how Betts turned up at Ms Jones’ house in Wrexham last May.
The court heard Betts, who had been drinking, assaulted her and punched a chandelier and a door.
A neighbour rang police and went inside Ms Jones house. He said Betts was ‘bouncing around and ‘demanding £800’.
When police arrived, Betts was ‘extremely agitated’ and was spitting towards the officers.
Mr Treadwell said police had to use captor spray, limb restraints, handcuffs and a spit guard.
But the court heard Betts assaulted Ms Jones again nine months later, on February 2 this year.
The prosecutor said he had come into her home and assaulted her ‘repeatedly and forcefully’.
He sat on top of her and grabbed her arms when she tried to get help. He then put his hand over her mouth so she couldn’t breathe. During the assault, she vomited and passed out. Betts stole her iphone 8.
Later, a neighbour saw her looking distressed. He said Ms Jones told the neighbour: “He (Betts) has tried to kill me. He’s threatened to burn the house down.”
Simon Rogers, defending, said Betts has ADHD, anger management issues and has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and depression.
Judge Huw Rees told him: “Your risk to people is only largely present when you have consumed alcohol.”
He jailed Betts for 13 months for the assault, and one month, to run concurrently, for stealing her phone.
He also sentenced Betts to three months imprisonment for assault by beating, two months for criminal damage, one month for resisting officers and three months for racially aggravated common assault.
Betts received two more months in jail for an unrelated public order offence in Greenfield, Flintshire.
The prosecution said it happened in October 2019 when Betts and a friend mocked a woman at a bus stop.