Blow gave man facial fractures
ATHUG who smashed a man’s face with the handle end of a kitchen knife in Runcorn in a row over childcare arrangements has been sent down for 18 months.
At Chester Crown Court on Tuesday, a door could be heard slamming as Connor Pill, 21, of Tildsley Crescent, Weston, headed down to the cells after learning his sentence over the attack which left his victim with broken bones and nerve damage.
Pill had pleaded guilty to Section 20 assault causing grievous bodily harm (GBH), possessing an offensive weapon namely a knife and affray over the incident on Saturday, March 13, this year.
Jemma Gordon, prosecuting, told how the victim Steven Spruce had been trying to contact his former partner, now Pill’s girlfriend, over childcare arrangements and went to her flat, where she ● appeared in a top window and after a short discussion told him ‘Connor will do you in’.
Mr Spruce heard Pill call his name and saw him walking towards him so went home.
A short time later he saw his ex-partner’s car outside.
Pill emerged from the vehicle and grabbed Mr Spruce, then held a sixinch kitchen knife to his cheek saying ‘I will cut your face’.
The complainant was trying to see where his children where when the defendant hit him with the blade’s handle, causing fractures to his eye socket and cheek.
Mr Spruce asked ‘is there any need for that?’ to which Pill replied ‘yes, there was’.
The men’s partners gathered along with Mr Spruce’s children.
The court heard the blow caused nerve damage that might result in ‘permanent numbness to the side of his face’, and his ordeal had reduced his sense of safety and confidence.
Miss Gordon said Pill had two previous convictions for four offences of assault occasioning bodily harm, battery, a Section 18 assault and possession with intent to supply cannabis.
Damian Zelazowski, defending, said Pill was a young father, that the incident was one Pill ‘deeply regrets’, and there had been ‘provocation’ from the victim, who Mr Zelazowski said had said ‘send him out’ during the incident at the flat.
He said Pill has to learn to deal with his ‘ anger’ and ‘flashpoints’, and he suggested a suspended sentence and curfew.
His Honour Roger Dutton, Honorary Recorder Of Chester, sentenced Pill, who had already spent seven months on remand, to 18 months in prison.
Sending him down he said: “You used that knife, not to thrust it into the body of the complainant but you hit him very hard with the handle of the knife in the face causing a fractured left eye socket and cheek bone, photographs of which I have seen.
“It may well be your victim is more of a robust individual than he might indicate in the course of his impact statement, but in any view this was a nasty injury that required treatment.”