Night-time intruder jailed for “terrifying” attack after DNA test

Monday 16 September 2019

A spurned 'father' has been jailed for scaling a drainpipe to enter his ex-partner's home to attack the new man in her life, after finding out he wasn’t the father of her baby.

The man - who is not being named to protect the child and his victims' identities - was handed his two-year prison sentence in the Royal Court on Friday.

The string of alcohol-fuelled offences at the woman's home, which included sending threatening messages to her new boyfriend and then attacking him while he slept, came shortly after he had learned the results of a DNA test on the baby he had wrongly believed to be his own.

Crown Advocate Emma Hollywood explained that the "terrifying ordeal" took place in the early hours of 14 April this year when the couple were woken up by an intruder on top of them in their bed, raining “six or seven” punches down on the new partner. 

Pictured: The case was heard in the Royal Court.

It was heard that the intruder had been drinking heavily when he sent a number of messages to his ex’s new partner. One warned him to “get yourself a weapon”, and made threats against his life. 

However, the man didn’t read the texts until after the early-hours attack as he was asleep with his girlfriend at her house.  

He stated: “I felt around six or seven punches to my face as I lay on my back.” His nose was bleeding and the man said he “could feel the wetness on my face from the blood.”

The intruder's ex-partner managed to get out of the bed and take her child out of the crib into the living room to get away from him. As soon as she did so, he started “smashing up” the child’s crib.

A physical struggle then arose between the two men during which the intruder shouted: “You stole my girlfriend, you stole my baby, you stole my life.”

Whilst her boyfriend restrained his attacker, the woman made a ‘999’ call. 

The woman said that the ordeal left her feeling “incredibly scared", recalling: "...It was horrifying. It’s the most scared I’ve ever been in my life… I thought, ‘My baby is next if he gets me.’”

Pictured: The Police were called to the property.

A crime scene investigation ascertained that the man had gained entry to the property by scaling the drainpipe to get in through the bathroom window. 

Advocate Martin Elks, representing the defendant, told the Court that this is “a far more tragic case than it might first appear” and spoke of the pain his client felt when he found out he wasn’t the father of this child despite being present at the birth and forming a “very strong bond with the baby.” 

The defence Advocate said that this had a “devastating effect” on his client, as though “his whole world collapsed around him.” 

He observed that his client had not only “lost his relationship”, but "lost the baby as well”. The night-time intrusion, Advocate Elks argued, happened after his client “finally snapped”, with the offences dubbed “a reaction to the very extreme set of circumstances".

He added that the defendant was “extremely remorseful” and “feels bad that he caused such upset and distress to [the woman] and the baby."

Handing down the Court’s decision, the Deputy Bailiff - who heard the case with Jurats Thomas and Averty - said: “This was an illegal entry of an occupied dwelling at night for the express purpose of an unprovoked attack… [while] a young child was present in the room.

“We fully understand the background to this and that you had been badly hurt when you found out that [the woman’s] child was not yours… however that does not in any way excuse your actions.”

Pictured: The intruder was jailed for two years.

Branding the attack as “cowardly”, the Deputy Bailiff speculated that it must have been a “totally terrifying experience" for those involved.

In his favour, the Court noted the man's guilty pleas to the charges of illegal entry, common assault and malicious damage, as well as his previous good character and “references which speak to a very different side of” him.

Emphasising that the offence was a “violation of a person’s home; a place of safety and sanctuary for them”, the Court decided to impose a jail term of two years for the offences. 

The man was also made to pay compensation to the victims for the injuries and damage caused. A restraining order preventing him from ever making contact with the woman or her child was also imposed.