A brute left his ex-girlfriend's lip "hanging like a flap" after subjecting her to three violent blows to the face.
Just months earlier, Phillip McGlinchey had put his arms around her neck until she couldn't breath and hit her head off a kitchen bench causing her nose to "pop". Newcastle Crown Court heard how the 31-year-old had committed the offences while the pair were in a relationship.
The woman, who was from Walker area of Newcastle, was so scared of him following the attacks that she moved to a rural location away from her family and friends. She also paid privately for surgery due to feeling so self-conscious about the injury to her lip.
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Neil Pallister, prosecuting, told the court how the woman described the relationship as "great" at first but said they began to argue and McGlinchey would never back down. He said the defendant lashed out at the woman in December 2020 after her friend told him she didn't like the way that he had spoken to the victim.
The prosecutor said that McGlinchey became aggressive and his former partner asked him to leave. He said she described how there was no reasoning with him when he was in that type of mood and she was concerned that if he started to shout it would annoy the neighbours.
Mr Pallister said he followed her while shouting and she ended up backed up against the kitchen bench. He said: "The defendant was right in her face shouting 'what are you going to do?'. He had two arms around her neck and strangled her. She said 'I felt like I couldn't breath, it was so tight on my neck'."
The court heard how McGlinchey let go of her neck before banging her head off the corner of the kitchen bench. Mr Pallister said she banged her nose and felt it "pop". He said she described how he grabbed her nose to stop the bleeding, held it under the tap and blood and water ran into her eyes.
Mr Pallister said: "She does describe how the following day the neighbour contacted her asking if she was ok. She had seen some blood on the stairs and asked if it was (the victim's). She told her it was her blood but had fallen and blacked her eyes. She took two weeks off work. She says 'my face was a mess and I didn't want to leave the house looking like that'.
The court heard how the victim said McGlinchey cried and begged for forgiveness so she took him back and they spent Christmas together. Mr Pallister told the court: "At the start of March 2021 she broke off the relationship with the defendant because the way he was making her feel was unbearable. She told him that she did need some space. Unfortunately after about a week apart she did get back together with him."
McGlinchey subjected the woman to a second attack on April 16 last year. The court heard how the defendant picked her up from her friend's house where she had been drinking alcohol. Mr Pallister said that when they got back to the victim's house she went into the bathroom and was followed by McGlinchey. She told him: "I have spoken to the girls tonight, I have opened up to them and told them what's been going on".
Mr Pallister told the court: "She felt a tremendous blow to the right hand of the face, to the mouth area, followed by a couple more blows." He said that she felt blood pouring from her face and she didn't notice, due to all the blood, that the top of her right lip had been split.
He said: "The defendant wouldn't leave her alone, she told him that she needed to call an ambulance. While on the phone to the ambulance service she was asked if the injury had been caused by domestic violence. The defendant was still present at the time. She knew he was listening so she just said I can't say, I can't say." He was later arrested by police.
In victim impact statements, read to the court by Mr Pallister, the woman said: "The injury to my lip made me extra self-conscious. I could barely look at myself in the mirror. I still feel extremely conscious about it. I still feel it's hard to look at myself. My confidence is knocked, I'm not the same person I was, I'm a shadow of the woman I was before. At times I don't recognise myself.
"When the incident occurred, and I had the injury to my lip, my young daughter would ask me if I was ok. She would state to me and others that I looked like a monster. That made me so upset."
She said that she had now moved to a rural location and she barely gets to see her family and friends anymore due to the significant distance between them. She said: "I have had to move house, I did not feel safe anymore in my house anymore."
McGlinchey, of Windsor Court, South Gosforth, Newcastle, pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Andrew Walker, defending, said most people have a reasonably long fuse or are skilled in defusing situations when arguing. In relation to McGlinchey, he said: "There can be occasions where a feature of his personality is that he can over react in emotional circumstances. Most people aren't bombarded by the negative feature of his personality but he is. He doesn't want that to be part of his personality when growing up, but ultimately it is. It's his problem and it's for him to address it and deal with it."
Mr Walker told the court that McGlinchey regularly takes care of his son, which he has with a former partner, and looks after his mother, who has medical difficulties after suffering a stroke. He said that there would be an impact on others if he was to be handed an immediate prison sentence.
Judge Sarah Mallett told McGlinchey: "There were nine to 11 stitches to the outside of her lip, which was described by an officer as looking as if the top part of the lip was hanging like a flap. It was swollen and painful. She felt she should pay privately for surgery rather than wait longer for it to be done on the national health service."
The judge said the victim took the steps to move house following the assaults, telling him: "She's become very isolated and the whole of her life has been impacted by the injury that you caused."
Judge Mallett sentenced McGlinchey to three years and three months behind bars. She also handed him an indefinite restraining order against the victim.
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