A man launched a series of attacks on his partner during which he ripped off her clothes before throwing her out of the flat in acts designed to degrade and humiliate the woman, a court has heard.
On one occasion Jonathan Sutton's victim was left wandering the streets shoeless and in a torn dress, and on another was forced to wrap herself in a bed sheet as she walked to the shops. Sending the 41-year-old defendant to prison, a judge told him he had treated his partner "like a punch bag".
Dyfed Thomas, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that Sutton and the woman - who is aged in her 50s - met in the summer of 2019 but that their relationship was a "volatile" one due, almost exclusively, to the defendant's abuse of alcohol. He said when he had drunk, Sutton would become verbally and physically abusive towards his partner.
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The prosecutor outlined details of two assaults carried out by Sutton in late July this year at his flat in the Mount Pleasant area of Swansea. In the first, Sutton repeatedly punched the woman to the head during an argument before ripping her top off, and dragging her out of his property by her hair. A neighbour gave the topless woman a t-shirt to wear. The second assault again saw Sutton hitting and verbally abusing the woman before ripping off her dress and forcing her out of the basement flat. On this occasion the court heard the woman - shoeless and with a shredded dress - began walking to the city centre but met a friend en route who took her to a shop and bought her a dress to wear.
The prosecutor said a further assault happened on August 3 when Sutton punched the woman to the floor in the flat and repeatedly hit and kicked, verbally abused her, and pulled off her clothes. The woman fled the property and - wrapped in a sheet - made her way towards the Tesco shop at the foot of Mount Pleasant hill. On this occasion Sutton followed the woman out of the flat and assaulted her in the street, grabbed her around the neck, and tried to rip the sheet off her. Police officers were soon on the scene and found the battered and bruised woman as well as the intoxicated defendant who became aggressive and abusive towards the officers. The court heard Sutton was arrested while the victim was taken home, and it was there she began to disclose what had been happening in recent weeks saying she was in fear of her life.
Jonathan Sutton, of Carlton Terrace, Mount Pleasant, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to engaging in coercive and controlling behaviour and to assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has 27 previous convictions for 43 offences including driving matters, public disorder, harassment, battery, assaulting an emergency worker, and criminal damage. He also has a previous conviction for battery for assaulting his partner - an offence which had seen him giving the woman a back-handed slap in a taxi - and two for ABHs which were unprovoked attacks on strangers in the street, one in Chepstow and one on The Kingsway in Swansea.
Giles Hayes, for Sutton, said alcohol had been a significant contributory factor in the defendant's behaviour over the last two decades, despite the best endeavours of his family and court orders designed to help. He said following his client's release from his last custodial sentence in October 2021 he had secured work in a warehouse and had achieved some stability in his life but said when not in work Sutton and his partner would associate with a peer group who would drink in Swansea city centre. The advocate said Sutton was "deeply ashamed and embarrassed by his conduct".
Judge Huw Rees said it was clear that drink made the defendant abusive and physically violent, and that a common feature of the incidents before the court was Sutton stripping his victim of her clothes and ejecting her from the property - acts which indented to humiliate and degrade her. The judge told the defendant his behaviour had been "cowardly", and that he had treated his partner "like a punch bag".
With a one-third discount for this guilty plea to ABH Sutton was sentenced to 32 months in prison, and with a one quarter discount for his guilty plea to coercive control was sentenced to 18 months in prison for that matter, the sentences to run concurrently. The defendant will serve up to half the 32 months in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
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