Man from Skegness who hit partner in '˜violent' attack escapes with conditional discharge

Magistrates said 34-year-old Craig Smith, presently of Sunningdale Drive, had committed ‘very violent offences’ but because it was his first offence and he and his partner were staying together and he was getting treatment for his depression, they would take the unusual step of conditionally discharging him.

Jim Clare, prosecuting, said police were called to their home at Pickswell Way on New Year’s Eve after she complained she had been assaulted by him.

Mr Clare said she told the officers that they had been arguing because he wanted to go out drinking on New Year’s Eve but she felt unwell and did not want to go and had asked him to stay at home with her.

He said she was pushed and fell to the floor and Smith raised a chair and hit her with it on the chest and then did the same with another chair and then a pram.

He also put his hands round her throat and she thought he was going to kill her, said Mr Clare.

When she pushed past him to get out of the house, he pulled her hair, before she was able to escape and go for help at a neighbour’ house.

She was left with scratches and bruises, said Mr Clare.

In mitigation, David Eager said it had been a ‘sustained assault on a vulnerable victim using a weapon’, but he had no previous convictions.

“He is a good man going through a bad time,” said Mr Eager. “This was completely out of character”.

After hearing that Smith had been suffering from depression which had led to binge drinking but had vowed not to drink again and was now getting medical help, they imposed a 24 month conditional discharge and ordered him to pay £105 in costs and charges