A Canberra man has been sent to prison after he asked his former partner to come to Young before beating her in the IGA car park.
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William Bell of Fyshwick, ACT appeared in Young Local Court on January 13, pleading guilty to four domestic violence charges on amended facts.
The 39-year-old was charged with two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of destroying or damaging property.
Magistrate Peter Dare SC gave Bell a head sentence of 20 months with a non-parole period of eight months.
According to police facts tendered to the court, on May 17 last year Bell contacted the victim telling her he wanted to see her.
She drove from Gundagai to an address in Young, where she then drove Bell and a friend to Young’s CBD.
Bell attempted to kiss the victim while she was driving, grabbing her as she told him “no”.
He then kicked his legs forward, hitting the car’s windshield, cracking it and partially shattering it.
The victim pulled the car to the side of the road in Lovell Street about 5.20pm.
While still seated in the car, Bell grabbed the victim and squeezed her tightly causing swelling to her shoulder.
She struggled to escape, eventually wriggling free and exiting the car.
Bell approached the victim and grabbed her as a passerby yelled out at him to let her go, and he did.
She ran across to IGA, Bell following and confronting her in the car park.
He took hold of her and threw her violently to the ground, where she hit her head on the kerb.
She sustained a laceration and a significant swelling to the back of her head.
Bell stood over the victim in an effort to take her mobile phone, wrestling with her for some time.
He had hold of the phone and threw it to the concrete ground, stomping on it a number of times and shattering it completely.
The victim rose to her feet and ran towards the IGA entrance to escape but Bell chased her and pushed her into a raised garden bed where she fell into a concrete wall.
He continued to follow her into the supermarket, where he was captured on CCTV footage hurling verbal abuse at her.
He stood in the victim’s face and yelled at her, raising his hands and not allowing her to leave.
Bell walked away but returned moments later and struck her with his right fist.
Several members of the public witnessed the incident and rendered first aid to the victim.
Police arrived to find Bell outside IGA arguing with a member of the public.
“I am pretty much guilty as charged, I pushed her in the garden,” he told police.
Bell admitted to throwing the victim’s phone and attempted to punch her but denied hitting her.
The victim was conveyed to hospital where she sustained swelling to the left side of her face, a laceration, a cut on the inside of her lip, an abrasion on her chest and a significant lump on the back of her head.
She had an amount of blood on her clothing, hands and face, and her t-shirt was ripped.
She also had redness and tenderness around her throat.
