JAILED DURHAM MAN MAINTAINS HE IS INNOCENT DESPITE TRIAL CONVICTION
A man remains in denial over a four-year-old drink-fuelled domestic assault in which he repeatedly banged his partner’s head off a wall.Despite maintaining his innocence, Craig Jackson was convicted of assault at trial last month and is now starting a 30-month prison sentence.
Jackson was said to have snapped in drink and repeatedly thrust his partner’s head off a wall at the bottom of the stairs at their home, on the evening of March 20, 2022.
Durham Crown Court heard that he used such force that it made a loud banging noise.
Nicci Horton, prosecuting, said Jackson paused the attack and flung his partner onto the stairs, but then grabbed her again and began hitting her head off the opposite wall, also, “with significant force”.
When the attack ended, he said nothing, but went into the kitchen for food, which he came back chewing, while laughing, before spitting it out over his distressed partner’s face.
The incident only came to light two years later and Jackson was arrested in June 2024.
Miss Horton said he was charged with assault causing actual bodily harm in April last year and pleaded not guilty on his first court hearing weeks later.
The now 43-year-old defendant, of Buckingham Crescent, West Rainton, near Durham, maintained his guilty plea at last month's trial but was found guilty by magistrates, who committed him to the crown court for sentence.
In her victim statement, read to the sentencing hearing, Jackson’s ex-partner said she was relieved at his conviction as she felt that she had finally been believed.
She said she endured “years of abuse” during which she was made to feel she was to blame, “for everything”.
During the trial she said the defendant made her out to be a liar, having previously told her she would not be believed if she reported the assault.
Since leaving the defendant she said she has changed almost every aspect of her life, including her car and phone number, to try to avoid him.
She has also turned down work opportunities to avoid where he lives.
The court was told the defendant’s previous convictions were for drink driving and criminal damage in a domestic incident involving a new partner in 2024.
Jennifer Coxon, for Jackson, presented character references to the court on his behalf.
She said it was difficult to offer any mitigation as to remorse as the defendant still maintains his innocence.
But she said despite that, he has still been able to discuss the impact of domestic violence with the Probation Service and has some insight into how victims may be affected.
Judge Jo Kidd told Miss Coxon, however: “He doesn’t accept she was telling the truth, so there’s no insight, other than hypothetically.” Miss Coxon said the defendant maintains that his lifestyle is now significantly different from what it was in 2022, when alcohol was a “significant factor” in his previous relationship.
She said at the time having previously separated, he had been allowed back into the family home, where there was “clearly a lot of emotional upset between him and his partner.” But she said the defendant tells her now, four years on, he has no contact with his ex-partner, and is in a new relationship with a fiancée and her family.
She added that the defendant has sought help from mental health charities, while he feels his drinking is now, “under control and managed”.
Judge Kidd said the assault on his ex-partner was both “prolonged and persistent” and she believes the victim suffered “serious psychological harm”.
