BYERS GREEN THUG ATTACKED WIFE WITH GOLF CLUB AT WAKE
A man carried out an attack with a golf club on his previously estranged wife after becoming agitated at a funeral wake, a court was told.Tyler Stafford met the woman in 2018 and married her the following year, and for the first three years their relationship was described as “unproblematic”.
Chris Baker, prosecuting, told Teesside Crown Court that Stafford began drinking increasingly heavily and became argumentative.
Following a violent outburst on April 21 last year, he was bailed on condition that he did not contact her.
But after New Year’s Eve, they began communicating and agreed to meet at a wake she was due to attend at the workingmen’s club in Byers Green, near Spennymoor, on Friday, January 17.
They arrived at mid-afternoon, and things were fine, at first, but later, a man threw a punch at him outside the club, and she was asked to calm down Stafford.
But Mr Baker said he went to his car and removed a golf club with which he used to strike her three to four times in the right shin.
She did not have full recollection of what happened, but she was also pushed over twice by Stafford outside the club, some of which was captured on CCTV.
Mr Baker said on the footage, the defendant could be seen limping and in an agitated state.
He struck her car with his fist, then took the golf club from his car and swung it at her vehicle.
The footage showed him forcefully pushing her to the ground before she walked away, back into the club.
Stafford could be seen gesticulating and brandishing the club, as others present tried to calm him.
When his wife re-emerged from the club, that was when he struck her forcibly three times to the leg.
Stafford was slapped by another man and then limped away from the scene.
The victim suffered bruises to her right leg, which left her in great pain, but she did not want to attend hospital.
Mr Baker said she has subsequently withdrawn support for the prosecution and does not wish to have a restraining order put in place.
Stafford was arrested following the incident and made no replies to police questioning.
But the 28-year-old defendant of Wear View, Byers Green, admitted a charge of assault causing actual bodily harm when he appeared before magistrates in August.
He was also committed to the Crown Court for breaching a suspended prison sentence.
Stafford was said to have five convictions for 13 offences, although none previously were for violence.
He received a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for 24 months, for aggravated vehicle taking in November last year.
Annelise Haugstad, for Stafford, said he pleaded guilty at an early stage in court proceedings, but appreciated he had put himself “in difficulty” by committing the assault during the period of the suspended sentence.
She said he has been in custody for two months, since pleading guilty before the magistrates.
Miss Haugstad said this was “a departure” from the nature of his previous offending.
“He doesn’t have an extensive record, but this instance of domestic violence is new offending for him.” Miss Haugstad added that if he was to be allowed his liberty, he has a job awaiting him and accommodation with a family member.
Judge Nathan Adams told Stafford that only two months after being given a chance with a suspended prison sentence, he carried out the attack on his wife with a golf club.
“By your own admission, you were taking cocaine, and you had the golf club in the car because you had been having trouble with another individual.
So, you had it not for sporting or other legitimate reasons.
You didn’t know the person who had died and got into an argument at the wake, and in the violence landed forceful blows on your wife’s leg.
She was there to try to calm you down when you hit the car and attacked her.
You were disarmed and left the scene.
This was an incredibly serious matter.
There are absolutely no grounds to suggest it would be unjust to activate that suspended sentence.
You knew you were not to commit further offences, even if it was different sort of offence.”
