A YOUNG Carlisle man left with a “life-changing” brain injury after a car accident has admitted assaulting his former girlfriend and transporting illegal drugs. 

At the city’s crown court, the defence barrister representing Ben Robinson, 24, told a judge that the attack had resulted from “frustration” over being unable to communicate while the drug offence had happened because he was “manipulated” by others. 

A man with no previous convictions, Robinson committed both offences after being encouraged by social workers to live independently, the court heard.

Robinson, of Vasey Crescent, Carlisle, admitted an actual bodily harm assault and possessing cocaine with intent to supply.

Alex Sutton, prosecuting, first described the drugs offences. Police were alerted by security staff at Carlisle’s Morton Academy on Wigton Road, at 3am on February 9, 2019, when a white Audi was seen speeding away from the school. It was later found in Portland Square, Carlisle.

Robinson - a passenger in the car - ran off before police could speak to him. Inside the car officers found cocaine worth just under £2,500. The assault happened on January 18 last year.

Invited to Robinson’s home, his former partner arrived there and knew immediately he had been “on something”.

He grabbed her phone and started checking it.

After she retrieved it and tried to leave, he grabbed her belt, snapping it, and then whipped her with it, and attacked her, ‘backhanding’ her face and then kicking her.

Defence barrister Joseph Hart spoke of a “significant” car accident in 2017 which left the defendant with a brain injury - judged by experts to be a key factor in the assault.

“He has severe difficulties with understanding and expression,” said the barrister.

Unable to explain himself, he got into difficult situations.

The defendant had been encouraged by his social workers to live independently and so had done say, said Mr Hart. 

“Suddenly, he was living on his own and discovered drugs,” said the barrister, explaining that Robinson committed the cocaine offence because of his drugs debt. 

Of the assault, the barrister said the defendant accepted losing his temper but now felt deeply ashamed of his actions.

Noting that Robinson was now living with his uncle, the barrister added: “He went to live on his own and lost it. He’s now got ‘it’ back again.” He had been unable to cope because of mental weaknesses, he said. 

Recorder Robert Lazarus accepted that Robinson was “vulnerable".

“He’d not even have been capable of understanding the scope of what he was involved in,” observed the judge of the drugs offence.

He imposed 10 months jail, suspended for 18 months with 100 hours unpaid work and 15 rehabilitation days.

“This is a case that was crying out for a suspended sentence,” added the judge.