A former councillor attacked a woman he was having an affair with during a drunken row in a hotel, a court heard. Father-of-three Damien Druce, 43, bit the victim's nose and forced his fingers down her throat, CheshireLive reports.
He received a suspended prison sentence at Inner London Crown Court on Thursday (April 28). The pair had secretly met-up during the business trip in a room at the London Central Bank Hotel on St Swithin's Lane after an evening drinking wine, the court was told.
Former Cheshire East councillor Druce, of Old Mill Lane, Macclesfield, pleaded guilty to one count of assaulting the victim causing her actual bodily harm, on December 9, 2020. Three further counts of assaulting her at the same hotel on November 2, at NOX Hotel-Waterloo on November 25, and her Salford home on October 9 were dropped by the prosecution.
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"The background on the Crown's description is this was a volatile relationship," said Judge Freya Newbery. "She was someone you had been having, to use the old-fashioned word, an affair with.
"This was a work-based relationship and it was not one-way." The court heard the victim was quite capable of being volatile and they drank together 'and that never assisted that situation.'
The judge added: "You were both staying in the same hotel in that working relationship and having got back after drinking wine a trivial argument started, with anger on both sides. You lunged at the victim and you grabbed her by the throat, but this is not a strangulation case, but your use of that motion to push her backwards.
"At one point you had your hand in her mouth and your fingers down her throat and she was pinned down by you, pushing her into the floor. As you were shouting into her face she bit your finger while it was in her mouth and you bit her on the bridge of her nose, which she recalled as being 'absolutely excruciating.'
"It did break the skin and there was some blood and she had a chip to her front tooth and bruising to her shoulder blades. The tooth was not chipped by a blow from you, but from movement during the dynamic violent situation," added Judge Newbery. "There was also bruising to her forehead and nose and other grazes and bruising.
"She took a taxi home all the way back to Salford and does not want to be involved further and has not filed a victim impact statement."
Druce's lawyer Terry Pedro told the court: "He makes no excuse for this offence and does not want me to defend his actions. He recognises it was wrong to use violence and he is ashamed of the actions he has taken and that he is back before a court.
"He has a senior job in mortgage and finance and there are a considerable amount of people who rely on him. He is in well-paid employment."
The court heard that Druce's marriage recently ended. "He has got a lot of debts because of his divorce," said Judge Newbery. The judge continued: "Your previous convictions were when you were a much younger man, 20-years-old or so and there is an offence of violence, being drunk and disorderly and driving offences.
"You take a keen interest in the community with charitable work and the Probation Service describe you as a pro-social member of the community," the judge told Druce. "I don't believe anything like this is ever going to happen again. You are an intelligent person and you do not want to put forward excuses.
"You have shown insight and remorse and you know this cannot happen again." Druce was sentenced to twenty weeks imprisonment, suspended for eighteen months and ordered to pay £2,000 costs. He must also attend up to 40 sessions of the Probation Service's building better relationships programme and 40 days of a recommended rehabilitation requirement.
Druce, the commercial manager of a bridging loan company, was also made subject to a two-year restraining order, prohibiting contact with the victim or visiting her Salford home. "Neither of them want anything to do with each other for a couple of years," concluded the judge.
