Football club security guard attacked girlfriend (From The Northern Echo)

Football club security guard attacked girlfriend

6:15pm Tuesday 10th June 2008 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

A FOOTBALL club security guard launched a savage attack on his girlfriend after an all-day New Year drinking binge, a court heard.

Darlington father Craig Wood punched and bit Emma Waters, pulled her hair and battered her over the head with a stainless steel kitchen tool.

The couple's two children - aged four months and three - were in the house in Mowden Terrace at the time of Woods drunken assault.

Miss Waters, 25, needed nine staples in the wound to the top of her head, and doctors had to glue a smaller cut, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Wood admitted unlawful wounding and damaging property - a kitchen door in the rented property, which he stabbed with scissors during the drama.

Jenny Haigh, prosecuting, told the court that 26-year-old Wood lashed out after being pinned behind the door as police were called to the scene.

The judge, Recorder Andrew Sutcliffe, QC, imposed a two-year community order with probation service supervision and employment training.

Wood - who lost his job as a result of the attack - was also told to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.

Mr Recorder Sutcliffe also ordered Wood to attend a community domestic violence programme and pay £40 to his former landlord for the damage.

He told Wood his attack warranted jail but spared him a spell behind bars after hearing he had never touched alcohol since the incident.

"There is no doubt that what you have done passes the test for being sent to prison," said Mr Recorder Sutcliffe.

"For an offence as serious as this, the court must send out a signal that domestic violence of this nature should not be countenanced.

"I have taken into account the helpful pre-sentence report and the matters raised by your counsel and concluded you will not be sent to prison."

Paul Abrahams, mitigating, said Wood had realised his excessive drinking was harming everyone around him and has since stopped.

The court heard that the attack happened after the couple returned to their home in the early hours of New Years Day and began play-fighting.

Miss Haigh said Wood was so drunk that Miss Waters had to help him undress, but his mood suddenly changed after they began "messing on".

Miss Waters went downstairs to avoid a confrontation, but she was followed, punched in the back and kicked in the leg before the sustained attack started.

Mr Recorder Sutcliffe told Wood, now of Shakespeare Road, Darlington, that the case made "appalling reading" and that he had shown he was "completely incapable of controlling your emotions".