A judge has shown mercy to a man who flew into a ‘bullying misogynistic rage’ when he attacked his partner in front of children at home.
Daniel James Maddocks, 37, from Glossop, twice attacked the ‘vulnerable’ woman but on Friday he was spared a jail sentence after a court heard he had achieved ‘some insight’ into his behaviour.
Maddocks began a relationship with the woman in 2017, prosecutor Emma Clarke told Manchester Crown Court on Friday.
When he attacked her on May 9, 2021, he called her ‘a slag’ over her perceived animosity towards his son from a previous relationship, an accusation she denied, Ms Clarke told the court.
He continued to ‘call her names’ as part of his ‘violent behaviour’ and then threw plastic children’s toys towards her one of which broke the skin on her leg, the court was told. At the time there were three children in the home including a baby in a Moses basket, said Ms Clarke. One of the older children then attempted to protect the woman by covering her with a ‘space hopper’, the court heard.
During a second attack the following month, on June 3, 2021, the woman confronted Maddocks and called him ‘lazy’ for refusing to clean up dinner plates before telling him she would complete the task herself, said the prosecutor.
Maddocks was then alleged to have flown into a rage and accused his partner of believing he was a ‘s**t dad’. He threw plates at her but she was ‘not willing to roll over’ and threw some back, the court heard. She suffered cuts to her head and hands.
The woman ‘tried to fight him off’ but he was ‘too big’, said the prosecutor. He hit her with a child’s high chair and ‘beat her with a mop’, the court was told. One of the children ran upstairs ‘crying’.
Maddocks was then said to have punched his partner in the back of her head, causing another cut, before taking a picture her on the floor.
His victim, who the Manchester Evening News is not naming, said in a victim impact statement read out in court that Maddocks had ‘systematically’ abused her and ruined ‘what should have been incredibly joyful years of early adult life’. Maddocks had left her feeling ‘worthless and unlovable’, she said.
She said she had tried to rebuild her life with another partner but that she still suffered ‘nightmares’ of Maddocks’ abuse. She said she sometimes woke up ‘sweating and nauseous’. Her ex was ‘aggressive, manipulative and dismissive’ and was ‘degrading to women’.
The woman said she had to ‘quit my job due to the anxiety’ as she would be left ‘crying every day’ on the way to work. She said she had installed extra security in her new home but still did not feel safe, and felt ’embarrassed and ashamed’.
Maddocks has one previous conviction for criminal damage in 2019, the court was told.
Nick Roxborough, defending, told the court his client had sought help ‘off his own back’ which Judge Paul Lawton said has ‘saved him’ from an immediate prison sentence together with the length of time it had taken for the case to be finalised.
Judge Lawton also noted the defendant had initially denied his crimes and signed a defence case statement claiming he had acted in self-defence. The judge blasted this as ‘nonsense’.
Judge Lawton said the assaults had been ‘extremely ugly’ and ‘committed in a bullying misogynistic rage against a vulnerable female all in front of children’.
The judge said the defendant taking a picture of his victim on the floor ‘was in my view to humiliate her’. But he said he accepted the defendant, who had described the relationship as ‘toxic’, had shown ‘some insight’ into his behaviour.
The defendant’s former partner watched from the public gallery as the judge handed Maddocks, of Whitefield Avenue in Glossop, an 18-month jail sentence suspended for two years after he admitted two counts of assault. He was also ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and 15 days of rehabilitation activity. The judge also imposed an indefinite restraining order preventing him from contacting his former partner.
Maddocks said ‘thank you’ to the judge before walking out of the dock.