Ex-con gets 21 years for attempted murder
A man has been jailed for 21 years for carrying out attacks on two women – 10 years after he appeared in a television documentary charting his re-integration into society following a stint in jail.
Nathaniel Hamilton, aged 31, of Burnham Road, Great Barr, was jailed after being found guilty of attempted murder, rape and assault earlier this month following a three-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court.
In one attack he struck a woman across the neck with a gun after threatening to shoot her.
In another incident Hamilton raped a woman and subjected her to a beating of such ferocity that she was left with multiple injuries and his footprint inprinted across her face.
Ten years ago he appeared in the BBC documentary Bad Boy, which charted his life after release from prison.
The court heard how his latest victim was left with a perforated eardrum and severe bruising to her neck and jaw after Hamilton forced his way into her flat on November 9 last year.
Judge Paul Farrer QC, told the court: "You threw a phone in her face with such force that it broke.
"Then you jumped on top of her and began strangling her with one hand."
The judge said Hamilton throttled the woman until she was unconscious and was only stopped by a concerned neighbour.
"Your intention was to kill her and you only stopped because one of her neighbours intervened," he added.
The court was told that on a previous occasion Hamilton had raped the woman and beat her up so badly that she was left with a footprint of a trainer on her face, a fractured jaw, broken ribs as well as a perforated ear drum.
It was while these crimes were being investigated that it emerged that Hamilton was already on police bail for making threats to kill and assaulting another woman in July.
He lured the woman to his flat in Holly Court, Acacia Avenue, Yew Tree, on the Walsall and Sandwell border, and threatened her with an imitation firearm, demanding she chose which limb he should shoot off.
The court heard she was struck across the neck with the gun and strangled until she almost lost consciousness.
She managed to escape when Hamilton left the flat.
Hamilton was said to have 11 previous convictions, three of which involved offences of violence.
Sergeant Alisha Reavley, from the West Midlands Police Public Protection Unit, said following the conviction: "The sentence handed to Hamilton is testament to the bravery of his victims."
Hamilton was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life.
