Man punched partner in stomach after baby claim
AMAN punched his partner in the stomach and told her to “get rid of it” after she said she thought she was pregnant.
The attack was one of a number Ryan Simon subjected his girlfriend to during their “abusive and violent” relationship.
Simon has a history of violent offending, including robbing a taxi driver, attacking a member of staff at a petrol station, throttling a Swansea GP, and spitting in the face of a policeman.
Swansea Crown Court heard 27-year-old Simon and the woman began their relationship in the summer of 2018 and initially it was “good”.
However, Nicola Powell, prosecuting, said after around six months the relationship had become a “violent and abusive” one which saw the defendant carry out a number of assaults on the woman over the course of a year.
The first attack happened following an argument between the pair when Simon threatened to tie his girlfriend up with cable before butting her to the nose.
The second assault saw him again butting her and then biting her. The court heard the resulting “large swelling” was seen by a social worker but the victim told her she was suffering with an abscess.
The third assault happened after the victim had told the defendant she thought she was pregnant with their child. Simon twice punched her to the stomach and told her: “Get rid of it – I don’t want it.” The court heard that two days later the woman suffered a bleed.
Miss Powell said the final attack happened while the pair were watching television, when “for no apparent reason” Simon became aggressive and thrust his vaping pen into the woman’s thigh.
After this assault the woman went to police and Simon was arrested.
The victim told police Simon’s behaviour had made her feel “worthless”, she feared nobody would believe her, and she had been embarrassed about raising the alarm.
Simon, formerly of Penclawdd, Gower, but now of Kern Close, Sandfields, Port Talbot, pleaded guilty to two counts of battery and two counts of inflicting actual bodily harm (ABH) when he appeared in the dock via videolink. The original charge of engaging in controlling and coercive behaviour was dropped.
The defendant pleaded not guilty to a charge of causing unnecessary suffering to the woman’s dog by kicking it, throwing objects at it, and injuring it with a potato peeler, and this matter was remitted back to Swansea Magistrates’ Court to be dealt with.
The court heard Simon has 61 previous convictions for 119 offences mainly for offences of dishonesty but including assaults – one of which was on a previous partner.
As a youth he amassed a number of convictions for assaults including attacking a member of staff in a Port Talbot garage, hitting a man over the head with a bottle, and robbing a taxi driver.
In 2015, he was sentenced to 154 days in prison for throttling his doctor at Penclawdd Medical Centre when the GP refused to give him the prescription painkillers he demanded.
At the time he was assaulting his partner he was subject to a 12-week suspended prison sentence for spitting in the face of a police officer while being treated at Morriston Hospital.
James McKenna, for Simon, conceded his client had a poor record and he described the assaults on the partner as “unacceptable, wrong, and ugly”.
He said Simon had lost his mother just a few months into the relationship which was the “trigger point” for the offending. Following the death he began “taking and perhaps over-taking” prescription medication and consuming alcohol and his mental and physical health deteriorated. The advocate added that, while not an excuse for his behaviour, Simon had been subjected to three serious physical assaults in the last 18 months..
Judge Huw Rees told Simon he had deliberately targeted a vulnerable victim.
He said the woman must have been “scared witless” by his behaviour.
The judge told him: “When you use violence towards a woman you demean her as a woman, and demean yourself as a human being.”
Simon was jailed for 30 months of which he’ll serve up to half before being freed on licence.