6 days ago
Newport man hit girlfriend ‘after she mistreated pet spider'
Gwynfor Bowden, 44, also strangled the woman when he put her in a headlock after they fell out while celebrating New Year's Eve together at her Newport home.
The couple, who had been in a relationship for four years, were both 'heavily intoxicated' at the time.
Bowden attacked her because he 'wanted to teach her a lesson', Cardiff Crown Court was told.
Ross McQuillan-Johnson, prosecuting, said: 'An argument broke out with the defendant claiming his partner was mistreating his pet spider.
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'It escalated to the point of physical violence after he asked her, 'How would you like it if I treated you like that?'
'The defendant struck her across the top of her head with a bottle of prosecco.'
Blood poured from the cut he caused her.
'To his credit, realising what he had done, he contacted the ambulance service,' Mr McQuillan-Johnson added.
Bowden admitted the assaults after he was arrested by the police and he was granted conditional bail.
Whilst on that bail, which prevented him from contacting her, he went to her house on Saturday, May 10 where they started drinking and listening to music.
Another argument broke out and the defendant smashed her phone as she was calling the police.
He then got into his car and drove off before he was stopped by officers on Ogmore Crescent in the Bettws area of Newport.
Bowden refused to be breathalysed at the scene but later gave a sample at the police station.
The defendant's reading was 60 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath with the legal limit being 35 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.
Bowden, of Power Street, Newport pleaded guilty to intentional strangulation, assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH), criminal damage and drink driving.
He has one previous conviction for ABH from 2012 which was also committed in a domestic violence background.
His barrister Paul Hewitt said his client was a former soldier who had suffered from psychotic depression following tours in Iraq in 2007 and Afghanistan in 2009.
'There is remorse here,' Bowden's lawyer added.
The defendant had spent more than two months in prison after he was remanded in custody by magistrates following the May matters.
The judge, Recorder Simon Stephenson, told him that his offending was aggravated by three factors.
They were that it occurred in a "domestic abuse context", that he had been drinking and by his previous conviction for a similar offence.
Bowden was jailed for 16 months and two weeks with the sentence suspended for 12 months.
He will have to attend an accredited programme, complete a 15-day rehabilitation activity requirement and he was made the subject of a 90-day alcohol abstinence and monitoring requirement.
The defendant will have to pay a victim surcharge.
