A MAN who assaulted his ex-partner as she desperately tried to stop him entering her Maryport home has been jailed for a year.
Lee Scott Birks, 29, had originally been sentenced in 2018 for assaulting his former girlfriend inside her own property, leaving her with a hand fracture as she tried to shield herself from his punches.
Birks received a suspended jail sentence which was later extended for rowdy behaviour outside a pub. He had also previously been given a five-year restraining order banning him from contacting his ex, and going near her home and her parents’ property.
He did adhere to those conditions for a lengthy period of time – until August 12 this year when he made an unwanted and unexpected call to her address.
After she answered, Birks wedged his foot in the door when she tried to close it and prevent him entering. This caused it to bounce back and hit her in the face, causing bruising.
After she fled to her parents’ home, Birks followed and damaged her dad’s car before heading returning to her address and going inside despite that also being forbidden.
“He was arrested the same day in the early evening at his own address, hiding in the loft,” prosecutor Brendan Burke told Carlisle Crown Court earlier today (THURS).
Birks, of Eskdale Crescent, Workington, admitted assaulting Miss Stoddart by beating, breaching the restraining order and criminal damage. The court heard Birks had lost his grandmother to Covid-19 two months before offending which occurred amid a drug binge.
Recorder Katherine Pierpoint considered a letter written by Birks and two character references. But, jailing him for 12 months, she concluded: “This offence is so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified.”
