A VIOLENT man who subjected his partner to a two-and-a-half-hour assault at her Rugby home has been jailed after a judge heard he had carried out a similar attack on a previous partner.
Lindsay Maggs had denied assaulting his partner causing her actual bodily harm and a later offence of common assault – but was found guilty by magistrates after a trial.
And at Warwick Crown Court, Maggs, 32, of St Columbas Close, Coventry, was jailed for two years and given a restraining order banning him from contacting her in any way.
Prosecutor Ben Williams said that Maggs and his partner had been together on New Year’s Eve at a pub where they had both been drinking and Maggs had also been taking cocaine.
He became suspicious of her having contact with other men and was making accusations, and eventually she, on the pretext of going to the toilet, left and went to a friend’s home.
After a number of calls from Maggs, she agreed to pick him up from the pub, but instead collected her car and drove back to her home in Rugby.
Then, having got a taxi, Maggs turned up in the early hours of the morning and began accusing her of sleeping with his best friend, grabbing her by the arm.
Holding her with such force that it caused bruising, he repeatedly assaulted her, including headbutting her, over the course of the next hour.
When he then went to the bathroom, the victim took the opportunity to run outside and ask two people who were passing to call the police.
They did so, but were told there were no officers available to attend, so, with Maggs having come outside to try to find her, she rushed back in and locked him out.
After a while, thinking he had calmed down and feeling sorry for him, she let him back in – only for him to grab her phone from her and push her against the wall in the hallway, pinning her there by her throat.
When he let her go, she ran into the dining room, but he followed and dragged her to the floor by her hair, pulling out a clump of it as he did so.
She tried to scream, but he put his hand over her mouth, and as he held her down, she reached for an empty wine bottle and hit him with it to the back.
Maggs let go of her and grabbed the bottle, threatening to smash it over her head before pulling her to the floor again and continuing his assault on her.
Eventually the police did arrive, having been alerted by a neighbour who had heard her screams, and Maggs was arrested.
But his version of events was that he had got a taxi to Rugby because he had become worried when she did not return to the pub, and that although they had argued, he denied assaulting her in any way.
He was given bail, and at 3.45 in the morning on January 16 the police were again alerted by the victim’s neighbours after they had heard her shouting and screaming.
She said they had been drinking at her home with a friend of hers, but that once her friend had left, his attitude had changed and he had again assaulted her, headbutting her and biting her face.
Expressing surprise that that had been charged as a common assault, Judge Sarah Buckingham commented: “He has behaved in a repeatedly violent way, not just towards (the victim), but to his previous partner, within the space of ten months.”
The court heard there had been similar drink- and cocaine-fuelled violence toward a previous partner, for which he was given a suspended sentence in February last year and then jailed after breaching the order by not carrying out unpaid work.
Nick Devine said that after offences when Maggs was younger, there had been a period of stability for seven years when he was in a relationship from which he had a daughter – but when that ended, it ‘sent him on a downward spiral.’
Pointing out that Maggs had been in custody since his arrest after the second incident, he argued for another suspended sentence.
But Judge Buckingham told Maggs: “An immediate custodial sentence must follow for these offences.”