NOTTINGHAM WOMAN-BEATER GETS SUSPENDED SENTENCE AFTER ASSAULT
A woman-beater from Nottingham has had a strip torn from him by a judge who called him “a coward”, said “you can’t say you love her if you treat her like dirt” and described his assault on the victim as “shabby behaviour”.Nottingham Crown Court heard how Dodou Colley left the woman bleeding and “distressed” in the street after attacking her following two days of arguments.
But despite what he did to her, the 25-year-old’s partner has stood by him, refused to either give a statement to the police or support any prosecution against her partner.
She left hand-in-hand with him when he came to court this week to find out his fate.
Handing him both a dressing-down and a suspended sentence order, Judge Stuart Rafferty KC said: “You coward.
Any man who hits a woman or treats a woman badly is a coward.
“She did not deserve that and you can’t say you love her if you treat her like dirt.
This was absolutely shabby behaviour which deserves a prison sentence and it would have been immediate but for two reasons.
“One, the elapse of time and, two, that she, rightly or wrongly, it’s not for me to comment, wants to continue the relationship with you and has never supported the prosecution, has always supported you and wants you back.
In a short time you will go out of here hand-in-hand.
But if it happens again you and I will be seeing each other and next time you better bring a bag because if you lay a finger on her again I will send you to prison.
Domestic violence is sickening, it’s an abuse of power and it should never happen.
“As part of the suspended sentence you will do 80 hours of unpaid work and when you do it you will mix with people you do not like and who do not like you.
Tough, you will do it, you get this chance and you will not get another.
As soon as you get out of that door, you will apologise to her and you will tell her you will not do it again.” Laura Hocknell, prosecuting, said police were called to Radford Road on March 19 last year amid a number of calls from members of the public who saw the “distressed” victim injured and bleeding in the street.
She said the woman told officers she had been involved in a fight with her partner but refused to give a statement or support the prosecution.
The prosecutor said: “Mr Colley was arrested and in an interview told officers they’d been involved in an argument and that he had slapped her.
He then gave a basis of plea in which he said they had been arguing on March 18 and 19 and during it he slapped her to the face but he did not recall biting her to the finger.” Colley, of Holland Street, Hyson Green, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
He has no previous convictions of any kind.
Matt Smith, mitigating, said since the arrest and charge his client had been living at his mother’s address, had given up his job and had not taken another one pending the outcome of this court hearing.
He said: “The defendant recognises that his behaviour was despicable.
He said he lost his temper following two days of arguing.” Judge Rafferty handed Colley a nine-month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months, with 35 rehabilitation sessions and the unpaid work.
As Colley left courtroom one he immediately reached out to the victim in the public gallery and they walked out of the door holding hands.
Judge Rafferty said: “I was right about them walking out of here hand-in-hand.”
