Serial domestic attacker jailed

Friday 14 September 2018

A man found guilty of punching a woman in the face, and delivering several blows to her body in her own home, has been sentenced to six months in prison - marking the fourth time he has been convicted of domestic violence offences.

50-year-old Andrew Leslie Rawlinson was sentenced to six months in prison for common assault in the Magistrate's Court yesterday.

Mr Rawlinson, who is unemployed, was represented by Defence Advocate Paul Nicholls and was originally charged with grave and criminal assault, but found guilty of the lesser charge of common assault.

The court found that Mr Rawlinson punched the woman once in the face and later delivered several blows to her body in her own home - an assault which Assistant Magistrate Peter Harris, presiding, described as "unprovoked".

Pictured: Andrew Rawlinson was represented by Defence Advocate Paul Nicholls when he appeared in the Magistrate's Court for sentencing yesterday morning.

Mr Rawlinson was also found to have breached a restraining order preventing contact with another woman, for which he was given a one-week prison sentence to be served at the same time as the other six months. 

When handing down the sentence, Assistant Magistrate Harris said that given Mr Rawlinson’s previous convictions for domestic violence that “there was little in the way of mitigation” and that “a custodial sentence cannot be avoided.”

The Assistant Magistrate added that “there is a wider public interest in sentencing domestic violence cases” before sentencing Mr Rawlinson to six months in prison.