2007: Boozer jailed after "terrible" attack on ex partner

2007: BOOZER JAILED AFTER "TERRIBLE" ATTACK ON EX PARTNER

A Kingswinford man who battered his partner after drinking 15 pints of lager has been jailed for nine months.

Michelle Hurst, a mother of two, was left nursing a badly broken nose, a swollen eye and bruising after 23-year-old Robert Phillpott "rained" punches on her face.

On Monday, September 3, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard the painter and decorator lost his temper when they argued after he had been out for a heavy drinking session.

Mr Paul Mytton, prosecuting, told the hearing Miss Hurst, Phillpott's partner for three years, was pleading with him to stop but he continued throwing punches.

After his arrest, Phillpott told police officers he could remember little of what happened because of the alcohol he consumed and he accepted the drink had "fuelled" his aggression.

Phillpott of Rowan Rise admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm and he was sent to prison for eight months for the attack by Judge Michael Dudley.

He was also ordered to serve an additional month in jail because the offence breached a community order imposed by magistrates on a theft charge just a month before the attack.

The Judge told Phillpott: "You are collecting quite a record for violence, you have been given a number of chances by courts in the past and you have thrown them all away." "Unless you get a hold of your alcohol and drug problems, you are on the slippery slope to spending many years in custody." Miss Carol Knotts, defending, said Phillpott was "significantly under the influence of alcohol" when he assaulted his partner, adding, "It is not something he is proud of." She also told the court that Phillpott accepted he had a problem with drink and, when sober, he was a "mild mannered man." The couple still have a relationship, she added, and Phillpott wanted to keep seeing her but he knew he needed counselling to prevent future incidents.

"He accepts what he did was a terrible thing," Miss Knotts stated.