A MAN who slapped his girlfriend in the head at her Carlisle home has been given a two-week prison sentence.
Martin Forster, a 27-year-old previously-convicted robber, turned up at Kyra Marie Hebson’s city address in an “intoxicated” state on November 16.
As Forster entered the kitchen, “mumbling” a crude insult, Miss Hebson went to the front door. “The defendant came over and slapped her to the left side of her head and ear,” prosecutor Julian Goode told Carlisle Crown Court, adding that the slap, with an open hand, caused soreness for about an hour.
“She describes the defendant as being unpredictable,” Mr Goode said of an impact statement provided by the victim, “having never seen him act in that manner before. She states that the assault has caused her to become distressed.”
Forster, latterly of Lowther Street, Carlisle, initially denied wrongdoing, but admitted common assault in court today (WED).
He is currently in custody having been recalled on licence after receiving a seven-year jail term for robbery and burglary in 2014. The court heard he is due to appear before a parole board later this month for an assessment of whether he can be managed in the community.
Announcing that his sentencing powers for the assault were limited, Recorder Richard Archer imposed a 14-day prison term.
“Clearly it must have been at the forefront of her mind the question of just what you were quite capable of doing, and what you might have done,” Recorder Archer told Forster of the offending against Miss Hebson.
“It is a case where it is hoped you can, in the long, medium and short-term, get some help.”
