A former "boy soldier" who threatened to "chop up" his partner and stomped on her already-fractured leg has been jailed.
Arron Chevelleau, 32, of Portslade Walk, pleaded guilty to two assaults and possessing a machete, the latest in his long history of criminal activity. Alison Whalley, prosecuting, told Manchester Crown Court that Chevelleau, who joined the Army when he was just 16, most recently came to the attention of the courts after two assaults, almost two years apart from each other.
At about 2am on October 19, 2019, Chevelleau was outside Bar Rouge on Portland Street when he headbutted Troy Bell, who had allegedly made a derogatory remark about Chevelleau's mother, before punching him whilst holding his phone in his hand.
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Ms Whalley, who said there was clearly "some form of background between the two", told the court the altercation lasted less than two minutes and left the victim with a broken jaw, requiring surgery to fix.
Unfortunately, Chevelleau wasn't interviewed by police until a year later - when he told officers he couldn't remember much about the incident. Whilst this case was being brought before the courts, and Chevelleau had been released on bail pending further hearings, the aspiring chef committed another assault - the time on his partner.
According to Ms Whalley, the pair had been out drinking and taking cocaine on November 1, 2021, before returning to Chevelleau's home in Wythenshawe. At 3am, after struggling to get to sleep, his partner headed out to a nearby garage to get some more alcohol, but stumbled and fell on the way, injuring her left leg and ankle.
A worried passerby called an ambulance for the woman, who had been unable to get back on her feet, and she was waiting for medical attention when Chevelleau noticed she was missing and headed out to find her - grabbing a machete before he left.
When he found her on the street, he became aggressive and abusive, threatening to "chop her up" before punching her in the face and kicking and stamping on her injured leg, leaving her screaming in pain, said Ms Whalley. After the assault, Chevelleau told her not to scream because she would "wake the neighbours".
Police arrested Chevelleau when they arrived at the scene, and recovered the machete he'd been carrying - which the victim fortunately hadn't seen during the assault. The woman suffered a significant break to her lower leg and ankle, and had to go through surgery and have a blood transfusion to begin her long road to recovery.
Andy Scott, defending, accepted that any personal mitigation for his client "counts for very little" in this context, given the severity of the offences. Both victims needed to have surgery for their injuries, and although Mr Bell has made a full recovery, Chevelleau's former partner still has a long recovery period ahead of her.
He outlined Chevelleau's history in the armed forces, and the "impulsive" nature of his client's "short fuse". Mr Scott said: "Everything started to go wrong for Aaron Chevelleau, as it does when people join the Army at 16 and leave some years later, and since then that short fuse that he has, which he needs to work on, is getting him into trouble. He's been serving prison sentence after prison sentence since he left the armed forces, where he started as a boy soldier and served in the King's Regiment for just over three and a half years, in 2009.
"We have someone who has no previous history of offending when they are taken from the shelter of the military and then suffers an unfortunate event, such as Mr Chevelleau's mother's death, and if they're not careful it's a slippery slope downhill." Mr Scott added that his client wishes to find employment as a chef once he's released from prison, after gaining qualifications in the kitchen.
Chevelleau's 11 convictions for 14 offences dating back to 2009, when he left the armed forces to care for his mother's ailing health, were considered to be aggravating factors for his offending by Judge Timothy Smith, as many involved violence - with several acts of violence against former partners.
In addition to that, the most recent assault on his former partner breached a suspended sentence that had been handed down on November 7, 2019 where Chevelleau had been sentenced to 22 month imprisonment, suspended for two years, for possession with intent to supply the drug Spice. The sentence had been due to expire five days after the assault occurred.
Addressing Chevelleau, Judge Smith said: "You have a variety of convictions which commences in 2009 when you had returned to Manchester after being discharged from the Army at the time when your mother was ill. This provides some context but doesn't provide any excuses."
Chevelleau was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment for all offences, 19 months for his assault on his partner, eight months for his assault on Mr Bell, and three months for breaching his suspended sentence, all to be served consecutively. A concurrent sentence of nine months imprisonment for possessing the machete was also handed down, alongside an indefinite restraining order against his former partner and a statutory victim surcharge.
