An intoxicated man turned up at his "petrified" former partner's home in the early hours of the morning and smashed her kitchen door with a brick to gain entry. The victim could be heard screaming and crying on a harrowing 999 call as the man walked into her bedroom.
Thomas Morgan, 34, was seen on a door bell cam stumbling from a taxi as he approached the victim's Barry home at 4.20am on January 29. She was woken up by his rattling at the letter box as he tried to gain entry to the house.
A sentencing hearing at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court on Monday heard Morgan had been released from prison the day before, having been jailed for the battery of the victim who he punched in the face, causing injuries to her nose and mouth. On another occasion he stole her car keys and took her car. He was made subject to a restraining order preventing him from contacting the victim.
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Prosecutor Rachel Knight described the victim as "petrified" as she called the police and cried as she could hear Morgan breaking into the house. Footage of the 999 call was played to the court, with the victim begging the operator to send the police quickly.
As the victim was on the phone, Morgan entered the back garden and gardens of neighbours and used a brick to smash the kitchen door and a kitchen window. He then entered the house and walked up to the victim's bedroom. He asked for money for the taxi and said: "Help me, the police are outside, I'm going to get years." The victim shouted at him to get out as he bled on her bedsheets.
The victim could hear the police trying to break into the house. She asked Morgan if he wanted a tissue to stem the bleeding and went downstairs to let the police in as the defendant ran out of the front door. The police later found him hiding in a bush in the garden of a neighbouring property.
Morgan, of Fitzhamon Embankment, Riverside, Cardiff, later pleaded guilty to harassment and criminal damage. The court heard he had 31 previous convictions, including assaults on former partners.
In a victim personal statement read out to the court, the victim said: "Thomas' actions have seriously affected my mental health... I have never feared for my life so much as when he turned up at my address. I didn't know what was going to happen. He destroyed me as a person, my anxiety, my confidence, everything. I didn't feel safe in my own home... I feel when he's under the influence of drugs or alcohol he's unpredictable."
In mitigation, defence barrister Richard Ace accepted the offence was "harrowing" and the fact the defendant was intoxicated, but he said there as no intention by his client to cause the victim harm. He said Morgan had an ongoing problem with alcohol and suffered with depression after he lost his parents as a teenager.
Sentencing, Recorder Greg Bull KC said: "You subjected her to an ordeal best described as serious and terrifying. Undoubtedly you have had a devastating effect on the life of (the victim)."
Morgan was sentenced to 16 months imprisonment. The restraining order preventing him from contacting the defendant was extended to last indefinitely.
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