A monster who tried to murder a woman he met on a night out will not be locked-up for longer after a bid to get his sentence extended failed.
Matthew Stevens subjected his victim to a sustained attack when she refused to have sex with him after they shared a taxi home. He kicked and stamped on her, stripped her naked and dragged her into wooded undergrowth, before leaving her to die in Brunswick Village in March 2022.
After the woman was found by a dog walker in the early hours of the morning she was so badly injured police at first thought she was dead. Stevens, 28, was jailed for 29 years after a jury at Newcastle Crown Court found him guilty of attempted murder.
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But a request was made for his punishment to be reviewed as part of the Attorney General's Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme. Under the scheme victims of crime, members of the public, and the Crown Prosecution Service can ask for certain crown court sentences to be reviewed if they believe they are too low.
A request was made for Stevens' sentence to be reviewed. But the case was not referred to the court of appeal and his original jail term still stands.
The court heard how the victim had been out in Newcastle city centre on the night of March 10 2022, where she met Stevens through mutual friends. They ended up leaving town in a taxi together in the early hours of the morning.
A cabbie who picked them up said she was much more drunk than him and repeatedly told Stevens she wanted to go home to Gateshead but he directed the taxi in the opposite direction, towards his parents’ home in Brunswick Village. He was on the phone to his parents, trying to arrange to take the woman there but was told he could not do so.
After arriving on Drysdale Court in Brunswick he took her off the road down a narrow path to a field close to the A1, the first scene of his violent attack.
The victim has no memory of what happened but her bloodied and damaged clothing was later found on the field, as were some of her hair extensions which had been pulled out. Her phone, which had blood on it, was also there. She was found in a nearby wooded area, having been dragged there by Stevens.
When the woman was found she had bleeding into both eyeballs, multiple lacerations to her face and ears, her tongue piercing had been ripped out, her eye socket was fractured, her nose was fractured and she had a punctured lung. There were 38 sites of injury, not including the injuries to her bones and her lower lip had been torn from the bone, the court was told.
As Stevens was jailed his victim described the impact the attack had on her in court.
She said: "I was previously a bubbly, confident person who enjoyed going out. I was the life and soul of the party. How my life has changed. I feel a shadow of my former self.
“After the attack I moved back in with my parents because I was unable to look after myself. It took me a long time to even look at myself in the mirror after leaving hospital. People were telling me how swollen my face was but it took a long time to pluck up the courage to look at myself. It took months for the swelling to go down.
“I always took pride in my appearance. Now I feel ugly and feel I no longer look the same. I no longer enjoy getting ready to go out. I often stay at home in my pyjamas because home is where I feel safe.”
