Horrific attack left victim believing she’d die as violent thug threatened to disfigure her
A violent boyfriend who subjected his pregnant partner to a terrifying campaign of abuse – including trying to bite her eyeball out – has been recalled to prison after breaching a restraining order designed to protect his victim.
The shocking case has reignited fury over Britain’s controversial early release scheme, with domestic violence campaigners warning that dangerous offenders are being let out too quickly to ease prison overcrowding.
In what experts are calling a chilling example of the system failing victims, the 30-year-old thug served just 18 months behind bars before being released on licence – only to immediately attempt contact with the woman he’d nearly killed.
Night of Terror That Nearly Ended in Murder
The victim’s ordeal reached its horrifying peak on a night that should have been filled with joy. After celebrating news of her pregnancy with family, she returned home to face a monster.
When she heard her fiancé’s car pull into the driveway, she knew something was terribly wrong. His violent shouting sent her running to call 999, desperately hiding her phone before he could find it.
What followed was an attack so vicious, so calculated in its cruelty, that even hardened police officers were shocked by what they found.
The brute dragged his terrified partner off the toilet and threw her into the bath, ripping her engagement ring from her finger. In a sickening display of degradation, he pulled her mouth apart and spat inside before headbutting her in the face.
But the worst was yet to come.
‘I’ll Make Sure No One Else Will Want You’
In a chilling threat that revealed the depths of his evil, the attacker told his pregnant fiancée he would disfigure her so badly that no other man would ever look at her again.
He then tried to bite her eye out.
By sheer luck, his teeth missed their target – instead gouging out a chunk of her eyebrow in the savage assault.
The attack continued as he dragged her by her hair through the bedroom and began strangling her. In her statement to police, the brave survivor said she genuinely believed she was going to die that night.
When officers finally arrived at the scene, they found her unconscious. Her attacker had fled like the coward he was, evading capture for two days while she recovered in hospital.
Years of Escalating Violence
What emerged during the court case was a sickening pattern of abuse that had escalated after their engagement.
The couple had met in 2021 when she was just 24, enjoying what seemed like a fairy-tale romance complete with lavish holidays and expensive gifts. But once he’d trapped her with an engagement ring, the mask slipped.
The catalogue of abuse was extensive:
- She’d been thrown outside naked in freezing temperatures and forced to sleep there
- He’d put her in his car in her pyjamas, telling her he was going to dump her in a ditch
- He’d violently beaten her before abandoning her on the side of a road
- He’d slammed her foot in doors and smashed multiple phones
- She suffered countless slaps that left hand prints across her body
- He’d pushed her down stairs
Justice System Under Fire
According to domestic violence charity Refuge, the prison overcrowding crisis has led to serious concerns for survivors, with calls for “an absolute exemption for all perpetrators of domestic abuse and other forms of VAWG from any early release scheme.
The case has exposed glaring weaknesses in the government’s controversial SDS40 early release scheme. Under the programme, around 1,700 prisoners were released on September 10th to alleviate overcrowding, with concerns that “many perpetrators are slipping through the net, having been convicted of other related offences, such as assault.”
Despite government assurances that some domestic abuse perpetrators would be exempt, critics point out that “the list of exemptions is not comprehensive enough to ensure all domestic abuse perpetrators are exempt from the measures.
‘They’ll Go to Extreme Lengths’
Emma Nurse, speaking on behalf of Leeway Domestic Violence and Abuse Services – Norfolk’s largest domestic abuse charity which has been supporting victims since 1974 – didn’t mince her words about the dangers posed by early release.
It’s important that the dangers that perpetrators of domestic abuse pose is fully recognised,” she warned. “We know that they will go to extreme lengths to continue to maintain their power and control over their victim, including disregarding any restrictions that are put in place to keep victims safe.”
Her organisation’s stance is clear: they “support the view of national organisations, such as Women’s Aid, that perpetrators of domestic abuse must be exempt from early release.”
Prison Crisis Fuelling Violence
The controversy comes as Britain’s prisons face an unprecedented crisis. New research reveals that “offenders are nearly twenty per cent more likely to be involved in assaults in too full jails,” with violence levels already rising.
The adult male prison estate has been operating at as high as 99.7% occupancy, with experts warning that prisons “can’t run the estate efficiently at over 95% occupancy.
But for victims of domestic violence, these statistics mean little when their tormentors are walking free.
System Failing Victims
The Domestic Abuse Commissioner has expressed “grave concerns that victims are not being notified of their abuser’s early release,” leaving them vulnerable and unprepared.
In a damning indictment of the system, it emerged that “37 prisoners who were serving sentences for breaching restraining orders were released in error under the SDS40 scheme.
“This kind of error is why I have called on Government to exclude all perpetrators of domestic abuse from the SDS40 scheme, regardless of their conviction,” the Commissioner stated.
Living in Fear
For the brave survivor in this case, the nightmare isn’t over. Despite a 10-year restraining order meant to protect her, she’s now living with the knowledge that her attacker – who once told her he’d disfigure her beyond recognition – has already tried to breach it.
The fact that he’s back behind bars offers cold comfort. How long will he stay there this time? And what happens when he gets out again?
A Broken Promise
Just days before the early release scheme began, the Home Secretary announced that “victims of domestic abuse will be better protected from vile perpetrators,” promising to “use every government and police tool to target perpetrators.
Yet here we are, with violent offenders being released early and victims left to pick up the pieces of shattered lives.
Emma Nurse’s words ring particularly true: “It’s important that we send out a strong message that domestic abuse is not tolerated and that tough action will be taken against perpetrators, whilst ensuring the safety of survivors.”
For one brave woman in Norfolk, that message came too late. She’s already discovered the hard way that when it comes to protecting domestic violence victims, the system’s promises are worth about as much as her ex-fiancé’s wedding vows.
The Bottom Line
A violent thug who tried to bite his pregnant partner’s eye out served just 18 months before being released – and immediately tried to contact her again. If that doesn’t prove our justice system is broken, what will?
While politicians debate prison numbers and early release schemes, real women are living in terror. This victim thought she was going to die. Next time, someone might.
