A drugged-up Elland man who knocked out his partner and left her with a serious facial injury has been jailed for nine months.
James Shaw, 39, had faced a charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm on Fiona Bland during the incident at her home in James Street, Elland , last October, but today (Thurs) his guilty plea to an alternative allegation of assault occasioning actual bodily harm was accepted by the prosecution.
Bradford Crown Court heard that the couple had been in an on-off relationship for about nine years, but they had now broken up and as part Shaw’s sentence Recorder Andrew Dallas imposed an indefinite restraining order which bans him from having any contact with the complainant.
Prosecutor Adam Birkby told the court that Shaw had left his partner’s home saying he was going to get some amphetamine but when he returned to the property at about 5am he claimed to have taken some diazepam.
Miss Bland described Shaw as being “off his head” and during an argument he punched her in the face.
Mr Birkby said Shaw was seen leaving at about 7am, but the complainant did not wake up on her bed until after lunchtime.
He said Miss Bland felt dizzy and unwell and her left eye was painful.
When her mother came round she was devastated to see her daughter in such a mess with a cut above her eye and two black eyes.
Six days after the assault Miss Bland underwent surgery in hospital to have a metal plate inserted in her fractured left eye socket and the court heard she had also been left with a scar above her right eyebrow.
Shaw, formerly of Rochester Street, had no previous convictions for violence and his barrister Ken Green conceded that the couple’s relationship had been volatile.
But he stressed that Shaw was not making any excuses for the assault and not blaming the complainant.
Recorder Dallas said Shaw had clearly been taking drugs that night and he had then committed a very nasty assault during which he had probably knocked out the complainant.
He said Miss Bland had suffered a serious facial fracture and must have been in considerable pain.
