A CARLISLE dad who violently "overreacted to provocation” while he was at a north Carlisle supermarket was struggling with post-traumatic stress, a court heard.

Joseph Malloy, 34, has been living with the lasting impact of post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of being stabbed and seriously injured a decade ago, his barrister told the city’s crown court.

The defendant admitted damaging a door at Morrison’s supermarket, a common assault on a woman and inflicting grievous bodily harm on her partner, who sustained a broken nose and a fractured eye socket.

The prosecution accepted Malloy’s “basis of plea.”

In this, Malloy said he “overreacted” to a comment from the woman he slapped in which she had asked if his sister, who was left seriously ill after a road accident, had died.

“This was very hard for me to hear,” said Malloy. “My sister at that time was in a permanent vegetative state in a care home having been badly injured in a road traffic collision in 2023.”

In the remainder of his plea basis, he said the situation escalated when the woman’s partner threw a beer bottle at him.

He said: “I stepped behind a pillar and it smashed on the floor. I tackled him to the floor as I was concerned for my safety. While on the floor I accept the punches as shown on CCTV. This was because I was under attack.”

Malloy explained that in 2014 he was stabbed in the back and this left him with PTSD which impacts his reactions to similar situations.

He said: “The 2014 assault was life-changing. I was resuscitated in the ambulance and I was hospitalised for two months and underwent major open internal surgery.”

Prosecutor Isabelle Haddad described what happened in the supermarket, Morrisons in north Carlisle, on August 24.

She played a short video clip in which Malloy can be seen crouching over the man he attacked, repeatedly punching him. The barrister said Malloy damaged the shop’s doors as he left the store.

Miss Haddad added: “The victim was taken to hospital with a fractured eye socket and a broken nose."

The court heard that Malloy had 31 previous convictions on his record

Andrew Evans, defending, said of Malloy: “This man can’t work because of PTSD; his entire life pivots around that incident in 2014, when he suffered a very serious internal injury. He has a huge scar on his chest.”

Mr Evans said the offences had to be seen in the context of that PTSD and “provocation”. This included an object being thrown at the defendant seconds before he attacked the man, he said.

Mr Evans also referred to the comment about Malloy’s very seriously ill sister. Malloy, of Dalton Avenue, Raffles, had already begun rehabilitating himself and he was on “the right trajectory,” Mr Evans told the court.

Recorder Julian Shaw told the defendant: “This incident may have started as a result of comments to which you reacted badly.”

The judge continued: “Let there be no mistake, Mr Malloy.

“The offence for which I have primarily to sentence you is so serious that only a custodial sentence can be imposed. The questions is whether I can step back from imposing an immediate custody.”

The judge noted the “sad and disturbing background” to the offending and character references from Malloy’s mother, his partner and his daughter.

A probation officer had suggested that Malloy at times relied on his PTSD to excuse his unacceptable behaviour. But his partner and his mother depended on his support and his daughter could not imagine life without him there, it was said.

The judge imposed an eight-month prison sentence suspended for two years. Malloy must complete 15 rehabilitation activity days and observe a six month 9pm to 6am curfew.

As the case concluded, Malloy said: “A bottle got chucked. With the PTSD it had to happen. But I know it was illegal, and I am sorry for what I have done. I hope to God nothing like this ever happens again.”