A violent thug told his girlfriend he would kill her on his release from jail after he subjected her to a series of brutal assaults over 12 hours, a court heard. Robert Saxon, 50, head-butted, punched, kicked and strangled his partner during the attack in Warrington earlier this year.
She went on to say he told her he would kill her after he got out of jail. Saxon has now been jailed for two and a half years.
Henry Riding, prosecuting at Liverpool Crown Court, said Saxon and the victim got into a relationship in April 2021. The court heard it was characterised by both drinking heavily and Saxon taking drugs.
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Mr Riding said that on January 23 this year Saxon launched into an assault on the woman at a house on Plumtre Avenue and the violence continued at his house on Yardley Avenue. He said this assault saw him subject her to a range of violence including grabbing her round the neck so hard she couldn't breath, putting his fingers in her eye sockets and head-butting her, reports the Liverpool Echo.
The woman was later checked by doctors and was fortunately found to have escaped serious injury, but she said the attack had a devastating effect on her mental health. She later reported Saxon to the police and he was arrested - but the woman said in a statement to the court she continued to feel intimidated by him because of numerous threats he made against her.
In her statement, read out by Mr Riding, the woman said: "Mr Saxon told me that if he goes to jail for a long stretch that he will kill me when he gets out. He said if I get with anyone else while he is in prison he will kill them and make me watch."
As well as the assault on the woman, Saxon was also charged breaching a restraining order because he was banned from entering Plumtre Avenue under an order granted previously by magistrates in Warrington after he committed a separate offence against a different victim who lived on the street.
He pleaded guilty to breaching that restraining order on two occasions and admitted the assault earlier this year. Saxon’s criminal record is vast and stretches back to the 1980s, with numerous convictions for violence, the court heard.
Paul Treble, defending, said Saxon's life had been blighted by an addiction to heroin and that it was in this context that many of his offences had been committed. He added that his drug use now meant he had significant mental health problems but said that since he went into custody he had sought treatment for his drug abuse and now had a job in one of the prison wings.
The judge, Anil Murray, said Saxon’s latest offence followed a pattern of violent offending but said his attack on the woman displayed a further level of “unnecessary cruelty”. Saxon, of Yardley Avenue, was jailed for two and a half years. A restraining order prevents him from contacting his former partner for ten years.
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