Drunk man fired crossbow at lover and choked her
AMAN beat up his partner, choked her, and then fired a crossbow at her head during a drunken attack, a court has heard.
Adam Callard had spent the days before the assault sending the woman abusive text messages and telling her he was bleeding to death after cutting his finger.
When she went to check on his welfare, he attacked her.
Swansea Crown Court heard police had seized a haul of weapons from him four months before the incident, but no further action seemed to have been taken – prompting a judge to say it was a pity alarm bells had not rung with the authorities at an earlier stage.
Ian Wright, prosecuting, said the chain of events which led to Callard attacking his partner started in the early hours of February 26 this year, when Callard called at the woman’s house to say he had cut his finger, and insisted she see it.
Because of his drunken state he was told to leave, and the following day he sent a series of “derogatory” and threatening text messages to his parter saying he was going to kill her and her daughter, and repeatedly telling her he was bleeding to death from his cut finger.
The prosecutor said that Callard also asked the woman to get his collection of weapons back from the police – in October last year police had seized a “cache” of weapons including knives and machetes, four crossbows, a wooden pole with an arrow-head attached, gas canisters, and a “silver garrotte” from his flat.
Judge Paul Thomas QC asked the prosecutor what had come from the 2017 seizure – Mr Wright said it appeared no action had been taken.
The court heard that violence erupted on February 28 this year, when Callard’s partner, concerned for his welfare, went to see him at his Port Talbot flat.
Callard launched into a tirade of abuse towards the woman before punching her in the face and then kicking her in the groin with a booted foot. The woman fell to the floor and tried to crawl away but Callard continued to punch her.
When she managed to get to her feet Callard threatened her with a lock-knife, before grabbing a crossbow and firing it towards her – the court heard the bolt of the bow “brushed her hair” and embedded itself in a door behind her.
The court heard he then threw his victim onto a bed, sat astride her and stuck his fingers down her throat while holding her nose, and threatened to kill her and dump her body in the sea.
Eventually the woman managed to escape, and raise the alarm.
Callard, of Victoria Road, Sandfields, Port Talbot, had previously pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.
The court heard an impact statement from the woman, in which she said the ordeal had left her depressed and unable to sleep, and fearful of going out.
Nicola Powell, for Callard, said her client had not appreciated the immensity of his actions on the night in question because of his level of intoxication, and “simply cannot recall what happened during that dreadful episode in his flat”.
The barrister said the defendant had clearly had a fascination with weapons, but now no longer wanted anything to do with such items.
Judge Thomas told Callard he had a “sinister fascination for lurid and dangerous weapons”, adding it was a pity “alarm bells” had not sounded more loudly as a result of the October seizure of weapons.
He described the events of February 28 as a “particularly bad” example of domestic violence, and said it seemed to him the incident had been undercharged by the Crown Prosecution Service.
The judge said the appropriate sentence after trial would have been one of two years and three months in prison – giving the defendant credit for his guilty plea, that was reduced to two years. Callard will serve half that time in custody before being released.
The defendant was made the subject of an indefinite restraining order banning him from contacting his victim.