2015: KIDDERMINSTER MAN JAILED FOR REPEATEDLY PUNCHING PARTNER IN THE HEAD
A 32-YEAR-OLD Kidderminster man who attacked his partner in a row over infidelity has been sent to jail.Matthew Vallance knocked his partner Rebecca Yapp to the floor and repeatedly punched her around the head, Worcester Crown Court heard.
She suffered an injury to her ear that needed stitches, Paul Whitfield, prosecuting, told the court.
He said Vallance and Miss Yapp had been involved in an on-off relationship for over three years at the time of the offence on April 25 this year.
They had been to a barbecue and then to a pub and then went to his mother's flat in Olympian Court, Kidderminster, where they sat and talked in the early hours, Mr Whitfield said.
"There was an argument about an allegation of infidelity and she slapped him," he told the court.
"He punched her on the side of the head.
She fell and he stood over her punching her about twenty times to both sides of her head." He also sat on her and said he would kill her and he carried on hitting her as she screamed at him to get off, Mr Whitfield said.
His mother arrived and intervened and Vallance seemed to come round, asking himself what he had done.
Vallance, also of Olympian Court, pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding.
The court heard he had a long record of previous convictions including offences of violence.
Jason Aris, defending, said Vallance had been struggling with a number of mental health and other issues and had started "self medicating" with drugs.
He had spent several years in a psychiatric ward but had now been free of drugs for some time, Mr Aris said.
Recorder Graeme Cliff said it had been a sustained assault and it did not seem Vallance had fully resolved his mental health issues.
He was given a 16-month jail sentence.
