A DRUNK sex offender who broke his ex-partner’s arm and smashed her TV wept when she faced him in court, telling the judge she was ‘terrified’ of him.
Anthony Johns put his head in his hands and cried as he appeared at Worcester Crown Court over videolink from prison on Monday where his victim recounted her ordeal, calling him ‘a complete nutter.’
The 35-year-old defendant of Pershore Road, Great Comberton, admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm and criminal damage following the attack at the woman’s home last November.
The defendant also admitted breach of a sexual harm prevention order by being at an address unsupervised with a child. After the attack Johns had been bailed to keep away from his ex by magistrates and to live at his home address.
However, he ignored the order, even letting himself into her home while she was out and encountering her 15-year-old daughter on the staircase.
Johns was also in breach of the notification requirements imposed on registered sex offenders because he was living at an address other than his registered address for a period in excess of seven days (between July 12 and November 30 last year).
Paul Whitfield, prosecuting, described how Johns arrived at the woman’s home ‘plainly drunk’ and ‘slurring his words and being unpleasant’ on November 29 last year.
Before the attack his ex-partner told him to ‘get out’ but Johns laughed at her and replied: “What are you going to do, call the coppers?”
Mr Whitfield said: “Such was her determination to get him out of her house she picked up a small knife and showed it to him.”
Mr Whitfield said Johns hit her with a backhand blow which connected with her right forearm with ‘some significant force’.
“It’s quite a difficult bone to break and a difficult bone to heal,” said Mr Whitfield.
The blow caused pain and tingling and her arm became swollen. An X-ray revealed a fracture.
Johns did eventually leave her house but before he did he punched her television, breaking it in what Mr Whitfield called his ‘parting shot’.
The victim said she now had a plate and five screws in her arm, that the bone was not healing and ‘it’s still got a great big crack in it’.
She told the court she would have to have the bone re-broken during a further operation and had to take painkillers to get through the day.
The court heard how Johns had stayed with her but she found out he was on the sex offender’s register and had asked him to go.
Johns was arrested the day after the attack in a car in South Littleton, making a no comment response.
The woman received a number of text messages from Johns between December 4 last year and January 4 this year despite being bailed to have no contact with her, offering to fix her television and asking where she was. He also called her and told her ‘I love you.’ This was the subject of a harassment charge, also admitted by the defendant.
Mr Whitfield said the woman called police ‘absolutely hysterical’ at 2am on January 4 this year.
This was because she had received a call from her daughter saying the defendant was at their house and had let himself in.
In a victim personal statement the woman said she was ‘petrified’ of Johns and added: “He’s ruined my life. I’m terrified of him.”
The defendant had 12 previous convictions for 23 offences, including for battery, breaching a non-molestation order and being drunk and disorderly.
Johns was jailed for three years by Judge Nicolas Cartwright and made the subject of an indefinite restraining order in relation to the victim and her family.
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