Violent Radford woman-beater bit partner so hard she wet herself

A Nottingham woman-beater carried out what a prosecutor called "unprovoked attacks” on two people while under the influence of drink and drugs. Nottingham Crown Court heard how Anthony Kerley first rained blows down on a friend and then turned on his own partner when she tried to intervene.

The 30-year-old, of Radford, punched her repeatedly to the face and then sunk his teeth into her so hard and for so long she wet herself in fear. Then, when the police came to arrest him, he spat in the face of a female officer who was trying to get him in a van and into custody.

Jailing him for 22 months, Judge Steven Coupland said: “Drink and drugs are not your friend. You may well have been involved in a toxic relationship but what you are here in court for is about you.

“You were drunk and on drugs and started behaving aggressively, abusively and badly and got so out of control you attacked two people. You attacked (the male) and then attacked (your then partner) biting her hard on the wrist and clamping your teeth down.

“It took two people to get you off and left her with a nasty wound and caused extreme pain. All of that is bad enough but when the police turned up you remained out of control, tried to bite one of the officers and then spat directly in her face. It was an appalling and disgusting thing to do and the police are entitled to do their job with the protection of the courts.”

Abigail Hill, prosecuting, said Kerley, his then partner and her male friend had spent the evening together drinking at another friend’s address in Nottingham and that at around 1am, on February 9, he suddenly turned on the first victim. She said: “He grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and punched him multiple times.

“She attempted to intervene and hit the defendant to stop him and then went to call the police. He chased her inside and punched her three or four times with full force to the mouth.

“She said she felt like her teeth had gone through her lips. The defendant then jumped on her and hit her over and over again biting her wrist and not letting go.

“His teeth were clenched on for 30 seconds to a minute and she urinated through fear.” Mrs Hill said the police arrived to arrest the defendant who carried on being aggressive with officers.

She said he tensed up to stop them putting him in the police van and spat in the face of the female officer. When interviewed he told them he could not remember anything that had happened.

Kerley, of Hartley Road, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Common assault and assault of an emergency worker and has eight previous convictions for 19 offences on his record.

Digby Johnson, mitigating, said his client had tried to end the relationship with the woman he attacked but when he did she would threaten to kill herself and he stayed. He said Kerley himself had previously been stabbed by a man known to the woman and who was sent to prison for five years.

As well as the jail sentence, the judge handed him a restraining order not to contact either of the people he assaulted or go to their addresses in Lincoln and Newark respectively.