A YOUNG Carlisle man who strangled and repeatedly assaulted his girlfriend has been jailed by a judge who concluded he posed a “high risk to women in the future”.
The city’s crown court heard 20-year-old Craig Lee Cherry had been sentenced for earlier domestic abuse on a previous partner by the time he struck up a new relationship.
During March this year, Cherry attacked the woman as she lay on a bed and began squeezing her neck, she trying to claw at him while struggling to breathe. “I was petrified,” she later said. “I thought he was going to kill me.”
On July 29, Cherry turned violent again, placing his hands around her throat once more, and also punching, slapping and nipping her and pulling her hair.
Prosecutor Gerard Rogerson said: “She also describes how he made an attempt to remove the make-up she was wearing by licking his hand – and indeed her face – he simply being unhappy about the prospect of her going out socially and wearing make-up that evening.”
Cherry also pushed and shoved her in a Carlisle gym in early August.
Cherry, of Orton Road, Carlisle, admitted three assaults – one causing actual bodily harm and two by beating. He also pleaded guilty to intimidation having phoned the victim from prison and urged her not to go to court.
The court heard Cherry’s immaturity, learning difficulties and ADHD had been a “stumbling block to him receiving the necessary support”, but also of his remorse and how a recent “breakthrough” in custody hinted at positive change.
Recorder Richard Archer imposed 13 months’ youth detention, telling Cherry he was a “bully” and “deeply controlling”, and concluding he posed a “high risk to women in the future”.
Cherry, of Orton Road, Carlisle, was banned, indefinitely, from contacting his victim in any way.
