A ‘brute and a bully’ who shoved his pregnant girlfriend down stairs and slammed her head into a wall ‘whooped’ as he was sentence to three years in prison. A court was told that Kieran Hilland, 22, carried out a campaign of terror for four months.
The Manchester Evening News reported that Hilland began a relationship with the woman and very quickly she was pregnant. The court was told that it turned violent with Hilland acting in an abusive way.
Bolton Crown Court was told he pushed her down a set of steps and lashed out in a row about her seeing an old male childhood friend. Juliet Berry, prosecuting, said the fact she was pregnant ‘didn’t interrupt the violence’.
His victim began keeping a diary of the violence and also posted pictures on social media platform snapchat of her injuries. However the court was told that when Hilland discovered the Snapchat account, he ‘exploded into violence’. He spat in her face, causing her to throw up.
The woman feared for her unborn child’s life. On one occasion, she couldn’t feel the baby moving and wanted to go to hospital, but Hilland stopped her getting medical attention. Sadly the baby has since died.
On December 28, he ‘slammed’ her against a wall, causing her to bang her head and fall to the floor. She curled up into the foetal position in an attempt to protect her baby.
On January 3 this year, he pinned her to the floor and put his hand around her throat, applying pressure to her neck for 30 seconds. “She feared you were going to kill her,” Judge Nicholas Clarke KC said.
On January 6, Hilland slammed her against a wall and put his hands around her throat. Judge Clarke KC said: “At one stage you put your arm around her throat and told her ‘go to sleep’, she was begging you to let go.”
In a victim impact statement, the woman said: “I don’t feel like me, I don’t feel like I’m good enough”.
She said she is scared to start a new relationship. “I have no doubt your behaviour towards her will impact her for years to come,” Judge Clarke KC told the defendant. “I hope one day she finds a relationship.”
Hilland, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to intentional strangulation; assault occasioning actual bodily harm; and assault by beating.
Sentencing Hilland to three years and three months, Judge Clarke KC, said: “You are a brute and bully who has behaved in a persistent and most disgraceful way towards a former partner who had the misfortune to start a relationship with you.
“In mitigation there is shame and remorse. There is a clear risk to future partners.”
