A CLEATOR Moor woman fought off her boyfriend as he subjected her to a violent attack, smashing a gin glass over her head, a court heard.

Robert Fullard, 35, snapped after he realised the woman had overheard him complaining to a friend because she had contacted the police about his drunken and abusive behaviour towards her eight days earlier, Carlisle Crown Court was told.

The defendant, recently living at Garburn Road, Kendal, admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm on the woman. Prosecutor Tim Evans outlined the offence.

The defendant met the woman while she was helping him in her capacity as a housing manager, helping him to find a new home, he said.

They began dating a short time later and on May 2 there was an incident involving Fullard, who turned up at her address and ignored her request that he leave.

“Things escalated and it ended up with Fullard becoming angry and having to be moved by the police,” said Mr Evans. “He had been shouting and swearing at her home address and throwing items.”

He later apologised, explaining that he had been “extremely drunk.” They agreed to meet up again on May 10, though the woman told Fullard she did not want to go out drinking with him.

She also refused his suggestion that she should “dolly herself” up for the evening they were going to spend together.  They drank gin and played card games at the woman’s home, with her teenage son joining in.

Towards the end of the evening, the woman went upstairs to sort out some laundry but then overheard Fullard on the phone, “slagging her off.”

He was complaining to a friend about her involving the police during the incident eight days earlier.

She told him that if this was a problem for him he should leave. “He punched her to the side of the head, knocking her sideways, and onto the floor,” said Mr Evans.

The blow caused the woman to collapse in a kitchen alcove.

Fullard then approached her with a gin glass, smashing it on to her head, shattering the glass, said Mr Evans. He began raining punches on her head, face and arms, he added.

She tried to defend herself, punching and kicking her way out of alcove, and escaping to the living room, the court heard. As he approached her, holding a gin bottle by its neck, she feared more violence and pushed him out of the door, said Mr Evans.

The court heard that the defendant had 57 previous offences on his record.

Sean Harkin, for Fullard, accepted a suggestion that defendant’s offending was alcohol driven. “He has used his time in prison constructively,” said Mr Harkin. “He is on a drug free wing.. and he is willingly there.”

This was confirmed by regular drug testing. Judge Nicholas Barker commented that it was remarkable that this was not standard for all prison wings.

The judge noted that Fullard had thrown a drink in the woman’s face in an attempt to humiliate her. 

“It was a significant assault which caused her not only injury and discomfort but great fear,” said the judge, describing the assault as domestic violence.

The judge imposed a 13-month jail term. The judge added: “Only immediate custody is merited. Members of the public would think that this judge had taken leave of his senses if he did not consider that to be the case.”

The sentence includes a five-year restraining order, banning Fullard from any contact with the woman. Three months of the jail term was for handling goods that were stolen by his friend from a McDonald’s restaurant in Carlisle.