A smirking teenage thug strangled his girlfriend and punched her at least 20 times to the face after she refused his sexual advances. The attacker had been out drinking when he turned up at the victim's flat at 5.30am in the morning ranting.
Declan Howells, 19, had been in a relationship with the victim for a year but matters came to a head on November 4 last year. He had been out with friends in Cardiff city centre and called the victim at 1am, and she said he could come to the flat.
At 2am he called again and asked the victim to meet him but she refused and went to sleep. A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Friday heard Howells arrived at the address in the early hours of the morning and was heavily intoxicated.
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Prosecutor Tom Roberts said the defendant wanted sex but the victim refused, at which he became aggressive and accused her of sleeping with other men. She accused him of ranting, and he began to physically attack her.
The barrister said: "He grabbed her around the throat and began strangling her, she couldn't breathe and and felt she was about to lose consciousness. She was struggling against him but he wouldn't let go. As they struggled, he shouted out in pain. His response was to hold her down by her hair and neck and punched her repeatedly to the face and jaw. She says she was hit facially 20 times."
The attack left the victim's nose bleeding and she could feel blood in the back of her throat. Howells continued shouting and screaming, and told the victim: "Nobody loves you, you make me do these things to you." She managed to escape to the bathroom, but the defendant continued to check on her to make sure she wasn't calling the police. She later ran to a neighbour's house and the police were contacted.
Howells, of Walker Road, Splott, was arrested and later pleaded guilty to intentional strangulation and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The court heard he had four previous convictions, including battery.
Reading out a victim personal statement to the court, the victim said she suffered a black eye, cuts and swelling to her face, and bruises to her legs, which required hospital treatment. She added: "I have noticed significant emotional effects this has had on me. I have major feelings of low self-esteem and major feelings of doubt and guilt. I felt so small and can't get away from thoughts of him, wherever I go I find myself blaming myself for everything that happened.
"Times throughout the day I will hear his voice in my head and it will have a serious effect on my mental health and emotional wellbeing. I thought he was my only comfort but looking back I realise how manipulative he was and how vulnerable I was and how he could walk all over me. I don't know how long it will take to get over what he has done to me and I hope he doesn't get the chance to do what he did to me to anyone else."
In mitigation, the court was told Howells was remorseful and while on remand in prison has undergone victim awareness courses. It was said his alcohol consumption had led to his offending and had suffered violent abuse at the hands of his mother's partners when a child which resulted in him being placed in care.
Recorder Simon Hughes told the defendant the assault was so serious only an immediate custodial sentence could be justified. He sentenced Howells to 21 months imprisonment and made him subject to a restraining order for 10 years.
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