A MAN caught on camera as he attacked his former partner outside a central Carlisle hotel as she held a toddler has been jailed.
CCTV captured the moment that Gary O’Toole lashed out at his ex-girlfriend with an unknown object as she cradled the young child outside the Travelodge in Cecil Street on October 25.
O’Toole, 48, had manipulated the woman into booking a room after arriving in the city for a pre-arranged appointment although she had expected a different family member to be there.
After refusing to let her leave the room and becoming argumentative, O’Toole “snapped” and began repeatedly punching the woman, causing a lump to her head and swollen lips. She initially told police, who found her shaking uncontrollably, that she had injured herself.
But O’Toole, a man with 74 offences to his name and recent domestic violence crimes, later admitted an actual bodily harm assault.
At Carlisle Crown Court today (MON), his barrister spoke of him grieving after the death of his father, and being subject to volatility while combining medication with alcohol in a bid to self-medicate for worsening pain. He was said to remorseful and ashamed of his actions.
Recorder Lawrence McDonald jailed O’Toole, of Woodstock Street, Liverpool, for 20 months. “One can only imagine the fear that she must have felt,” said the judge, who described a “sustained and repeated assault on the same victim”.
“It is quite clear to me a custodial sentence is required both to mark the court’s disapproval of your offending and to protect the public.”
