Penrith woman's violent boyfriend told her she would 'die in Crete'

Kyle Speight’s repeated drink-fuelled assaults on the woman finally ended while the couple were on holiday in Crete, where he smashed a coffee cup into her face, splitting open her nose.

The attack left her scarred. 

At one stage during his violence, the 37-year-old told the woman she would “die in Crete.” Her horrific ordeal was described at Carlisle Crown Court as a judge passed sentence on Speight.

He admitted two actual bodily harm assaults, intentionally causing grievous bodily harm, an assault by beating, damaging his victim’s mobile phone, and strangulation.  

Prosecutor Kim Whittlestone outlined the facts.

“They met in mid-January and the relationship lasted 16 weeks,” said the barrister. “Within that 16 week, the victim was subjected to numerous violent offences by this defendant.” In the early stages, Speight “love bombed” the woman.

The relationship progresses quickly, with Speight moving from his home in Bolton and into her home in Penrith. Things first soured on April 16 when a male stranger in a Penrith pub complemented the woman.

Speight was immediately jealous.

Once at home, he punched her to the face, leaving her bruised. At the time, he was drunk. The second assault happened four days later as the couple stayed at the Chase Hotel near Whitehaven after a wedding.

“Again, in drink, and jealous, he turned on her in a prolonged assault that went on for at least 15 minutes,” said Miss Whittlestsone. In a phone recording made by the woman, Speight could be heard yelling abuse at her.

“He could be heard repeatedly slapping her face and body,” said the barrister.

Realising she had used the phone, Speight smashed it. He then knelt on her back, making it difficult for her to breath. After this, he climbed into bed and fell asleep, as the woman stayed curled up on the floor, silent but too terrified to move.

The most serious assault happened during the holiday to Crete. After arriving, he started drinking, consuming ten pints of beer and ten cocktails.

Speight hit, kicked and slapped the woman during a sustained assault, with the violence culminating as he used the mug as a weapon, splitting her nose. After the violence, as in previous incidents, Speight apologised.

He repeatedly threatened to kill himself to win the woman’s forgiveness. The woman provided a poignant personal victim statement.

She spoke movingly of the profound impact of Speight’s violence, describing how she had been left physically and psychologically scarred. Of the scar on her face, she said: “I don’t feel like it’s ever going to be better.

“I’m permanently marked.”

Describing the emotional and psychological impact, she said: “I don’t really ever leave the house at all, and if I do it takes two to three hours to build up the confidence. It’s definitely affected me a lot; I don’t recognise who I am.”

The woman she used to be was gone and definitely not coming back.

Before her relationship with Speight, she had been “bubbly, happy, and confident,” she said. “Now, I don’t know what to say when I see people and they ask about it; it wasn’t me who did this to my face.

“It’s difficult to comprehend that a person I loved, and who was supposed to love me, did this to my face, my heart and my head.” Every day was a struggle, with occasions when she suffered eight hours of constant flashbacks.

“I can’t do anything to stop it," she said. "It happens on a daily basis.”

At the time she made the statement, she was waiting to begin counselling, and it was expected this will start next week, the court heard.

She spoke of waking screaming and sweating after two hours of sleep. “I don’t think that, unless something like this happens in your life, that you can understand PTSD. You hear about it; it’s a real and scary thing.

“I’ve always been strong… this has ruined my life, for now. Kyle ruined his life as well but it wasn’t my fault; I’m still trying to make sense of it and understand it.

"I don’t think I will ever understand it.”

She also described felling scared all the time – afraid when she hears a knock on the door, or when a bird recently flew into a window. “It’s really sad that this happens, people like Kyle can just walk into people’s lives and do this to them…

“You don’t do this to someone you love.”

The court heard that Speight has 47 previous offences on his record, including violence against three previous partners. He knocked one woman out by headbutting her.

Charles Brown, defending, said Speight accepted “full responsibility” for his offending.  “He's a man who had a troubled upbringing,” said the barrister.

Speight developed addictions to alcohol and cocaine; while he tried to address this he clearly did not recognise how deep his addictions were, or saw how easily they could assert themselves and affect other people.

When affected by alcohol, Speight’s behaviour escalated.

Expelled from school, he began using drink and drugs in his early teens and was addicted by the time he was 18. Mr Brown said the defendant’s behaviour was “reflective of” experiences in his childhood.

“His father was aggressive towards his partners, both verbally and physically,” said Mr Brown. Speight was diagnosed with unstable personality disorder and at one point given antipsychotic medication.

“His remorse and level of understanding is genuine,” continued the barrister. “He can’t cope with what he has done to other people and not being able to understand why.

“He didn’t appreciate how badly he was addicted to drugs and alcohol and how badly, how wickedly, he was capable of behaving when he did relapse. He has insight into his behaviour and a genuine desire to change.”

Jailing Speight for 63 months, Judge Nicholas Barker told the defendant that he had reduced his victim to a state where she felt “nothing but fear – fear of you and fear about what was going to happen to her.”

She was so desperate to escape from him in Crete that police put her on to a flight to the UK, she being still in her bikini and her bloodstained T-shirt.

Though Speight had mental health issues, said the judge, he was given opportunities to address this during multiple Probation Service interventions. He failed to use those opportunities and only he was responsible for this.

Speight, formerly of Plodder Lane, Bolton, will be subject to an extended licence period, meaning will remain at risk of recall to prison for 87 months from now.