Claims over unborn baby sparked cleaver attack

FURIOUS EX IS LOCKED UP FOR 15 YEARS

A FURIOUS ex battered his way through a bathroom door with a meat cleaver to attack the man who claimed to be the father of his former partner’s baby.

Lewis Burrows was thrown into a rage when victim Christopher Wilson told him a woman they had both dated was carrying his child.

Burrows, 25, had believed pregnant Ashleigh Rathbone’s baby to be his own, their relationship having ended days before the brutal attack.

He had struck up a relationship with Miss Rathbone after she had broken up with Mr Wilson around six months previously, Newcastle Crown Court heard on Friday.

Miss Rathbone had spent the night of August 22, 2017 house-sitting with Mr Wilson after the relationship with Burrows had ended.

In Facebook messages to his ex-girlfriend, Burrows had at first been “rational” and “affectionate”, telling her to “stay strong” and consoling her about an argument she told him she had had with Mr Wilson.

However, when Mr Wilson took up the phone in the early hours of that morning, Burrows “lost control” and rushed to the house in a taxi, planning to find out which of the pair was really the father.

When he arrived, Burrows took up two knives from the kitchen, including one “chunky” weapon described as “a meat cleaver” and made for his rival.

Prosecuting, Vincent Ward said: “It was on the stairs Mr Wilson and the defendant confronted each other.

“The defendant produced a chunky knife, which looked like a meat cleaver, and hit him twice – once on the left cheek and once on the left arm.

“Mr Wilson ran to the toilet and the defendant pursued him.

“He used the large knife to break through the upper section of the door and kicked through the lower section.

“He continued to attack Mr Wilson with that knife until he dropped it and Mr Wilson was able to kick it under the toilet.”

However, at this, Burrows produced a smaller knife, continuing to attack his victim with it and causing “further injuries”.

The onslaught only stopped when Miss Rathbone shouted and he entered the bedroom to speak to her, allowing Mr Wilson to escape to the street and tell a neighbour to call 999.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, he revealed the attack had left him with lasting wounds, both physical and mental: unable to write having lost the use of two fingers, unable to feel the side of his face and feeling “paranoid” about people looking at his now-scarred face.

He said: “I never used to feel as bad as this. I don’t feel safe on the streets anymore.”

Mitigating on behalf of Burrows, Andrew Walker said he had “clearly lost control” after Mr Wilson had said Miss Rathbone’s baby was his and that he wanted to get their family back together.

Highlighting messages from earlier that evening between Burrows and Miss Rathbone, he said: “It is clear at the start of their dialogue he is perfectly reasonable and loving to his partner – or the woman who he believed to be pregnant with his child.”

He said the messages telling Burrows “not to be a home-wrecker” and saying the baby was not his would have caused “real upset to an average person” though Burrows’ reaction was “not proportionate.”

He added: “It did not come from nowhere, there was an element of provocation, whether it was intentional or not. He accepts he completely lost his self-control when he was there.

“He did not travel to the property armed or with the intention to cause the injury he did.”

Burrows, of Brinkburn Avenue, Gosforth, pleaded guilty in January to an offence of Section 18 wounding with intent and was sentenced to a 15-yearand-one-month extended sentence.

Handing down the sentence, of which at least 10 years and one month will be spent in custody, Judge Robert Spragg said he was satisfied Burrows posed a significant risk to the public, though not enough for a life sentence to be necessary.