Woman-beater told 'just look at your mother's face - she is horrified'

A woman-beater was told to look at his 'horrified' mother in the courtroom’s public gallery as he was spared immediate prison. Christopher Dawe shook in fear in the dock throughout his sentencing at Nottingham Crown Court for repeatedly attacking his now ex-partner.

The 31-year-old’s "cycle of manipulation” on his Nottingham victim saw him head-butt, punch and stamp on her. And in a victim impact statement she told how even almost three years on she still carries with her the “emotional scars" of what the defendant did to her.

Handing him a suspended sentence, Judge Stuart Rafferty KC said: “Relationships are never easy whether they are happy or sad. But you behaved like an overgrown child and you should be absolutely ashamed of yourself.

“Just look at your mother’s face in the public gallery - she is horrified. Children have their vulnerabilities about them sometimes and they (parents) think their child is perfect just like them.

“But children are people in their own right and some parents have to stand by and look in abject horror as their child goes off the rails not just once but repeatedly. Some day you will be in a new relationship and if you repeat the sort of behaviour you have shown then to prison you will go.

“If, during the next 18 months, you come back before the court, you will come back before me and I will remember why I am doing what I am doing today and you won’t get another chance. As soon as you get out that door you say sorry to your mum.”

Nicola Patten, prosecuting, said Dawe and the victim had been in a relationship for around two years but, by the beginning of 2022, it had run into difficulties. She said the attacks happened between January and February of that year, mainly in Rushcliffe, and on the first occasion he head-butted the woman twice and put her to the floor.

The prosecutor said he head-butted her again on the second occasion and on the third “strangled and punched” her. Miss Patten said: “On the fourth occasion they had an argument about a phone message and she told him to leave the house and during that argument he punched her to the face causing bruising.

“On February 12, they had been drinking in Derbyshire and they began arguing. He told her if she did not return his phone she would be dead and he then put his hands to her neck and shoulder and stamped on her upper left leg.

“He got hold of her arms and pushed her and punched her several times to the face, got on top of her and punched her several times to the leg and back.” Miss Patten read out a victim impact statement made by the woman.

In it she said: “This has had a major impact on both me and my daughter. While the physical scars have gone, the emotional ones remain.

“This was a cycle of manipulation and I felt guilty every day because I was unable to shield my daughter from what she saw.” Dawe, of Chapel Hill, Belper, pleaded guilty to five counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one count of common assault.

He has three previous convictions, two for drink-driving, but nothing for domestic violence, the prosecutor said. Dominic Shelley, mitigating, said his client’s parents were in court and had supported their son throughout the entire time.

He said: “It is clear that not only are they a loving family but he has caused them immense harm over the years.” Judge Rafferty asked him: “Has he sought any help for anger management?”

The barrister replied: “He has been in contact with a counsellor primarily for his anxiety.” Dawe was handed a 20-month jail term, suspended for 18 months, and a five-year restraining order not to contact the victim or go to any address where he knows she might be living or working.