Lover suffered hammer attack when ex broke in
A YOUNG mum has told of a terrifying ordeal which saw her boyfriend attacked with a hammer while he was taking a shower after her expartner and two masked men broke into her house.
Rebecca Grainger, who was five months pregnant at the time, was at home with another child as she saw her defenceless partner, Caie Copp, being beaten after the gang smashed through the front door of their home in Pentrebane, Cardiff.
After the men had fled, she found the 29-year-old martial arts instructor unresponsive and covered in blood on the floor of their bathroom and called 999 immediately.
Rebecca says the incident came about after 33-year-old Wayne Hall, with whom she has three children, discovered she was having a baby with Caie.
“It was early October last year and I’d received an email from Wayne’s mother asking if we could talk,” said the home care giver and mum-of-four, who split from Hall in 2017.
“So I went into the bathroom, where Caie was showering, to read the messages out to him when suddenly my front door flew open and hit the wall of the hallway with a loud bang.
“I heard a shout of ‘Where the f*** is he to?’ and saw two men in balaclavas, one holding a hammer, come rushing in.
“A third appeared wearing a scarf and a hoodie – I instantly recognised him to be Wayne.
“It was all so surreal – I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”
Rebecca added: “The three men ran up the stairs towards me and my daughter and they kicked in the
bathroom door and began attacking Caie.
“It only lasted a few minutes but felt like forever, and after they ran off I raced downstairs and locked the door behind them.”
Rebecca said she then went back
upstairs to find Caie covered in blood and surrounded by shards of glass.
The kickboxer was taken to the University Hospital of Wales to be treated for his injuries and has since been assessed for Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder.
“I still get flashbacks about even now,” said Caie.
“Especially with everyone walking around with Covid face coverings on – no matter where I go the memory of that day gets triggered.
“Every day I relive the door being kicked in, me slipping on the wet floor and the punches and kicks.”
However, being taken by surprise didn’t stop his martial arts training kicking in as he threw Hall through the shower screen.
“I remember holding him down and the other guy starting to hit me from behind with the hammer,” he said.
“I had to drag myself under the sink to protect my head from being repeatedly struck.”
Caie added that he frequently wakes up in a cold sweat and has started suffering with bad nose bleeds and headaches in the months since it happened.
Wayne Mark Hall and Tyler Mark Richards, 24, both of Archer Road in Ely, Cardiff, pleaded guilty to charges of wounding with intent.
They were sentenced to eight and a half years and eight years respectively at Cardiff Crown Court last month.
The third person involved in the attack has never been identified.
Rebecca and Caie, who recently got engaged, became parents to baby Cleo in February and say the jail sentences have marked a new chapter in their lives together.
“In an odd way what happened has made us more secure as a family unit,” said Caie.
“Rebecca told me she’d understand if I preferred to leave, for my own safety, but that was never a consideration.
“We’re stronger now than we ever were.” it