JAILED: Man who hit pregnant partner after taking legal high
A man who hit his pregnant partner and smashed a hole into a door at their Dudley home after taking a legal high has been jailed for 11 months.
Ricky Handy had also been drinking when the argument with his former girlfriend turned ugly.
Miss Elizabeth Power, prosecuting, told Wolverhampton Crown Court on Tuesday that Handy admitted an offence assaulting occasioning bodily harm and two offences of criminal damage.
He admitted assaulting Sarah Ralston on a basis that at the time 'he was drunk and took a legal high'.
"He did not intend to hurt her, but accepts his behaviour was reckless," Miss Power said.
"They had been in a three-year relationship. At the time they had an 18-month-old child and his partner was pregnant. She rents her home from the defendant's mother and he would stay over approximately one night a week.
"She thought he was not behaving like himself and they had money issues."
She said that Handy, of Baptist End Road, Netherton, was verbally abusive telling her that he was 'sick of her' and that he wanted her to leave. He went to a shop in Brierley Hill and spent £15 on a legal high and had alcohol. When he returned he threw a missile at his girlfriend's £3,000 TV set breaking the screen. During the incident he picked up a plastic bag containing a metal pole which he threw at her causing her eyebrow to bleed, and grabbed her throat.
"On Sunday he was again aggressive and Miss Ralston was woken up the sound of something being smashed up. It was a door panel. She called the police who attended and the defendant was arrested."
Mr Graham Russell, defending, said Handy had taken the legal high, known as Lotus. And that a childhood friend, Wayne Neal had had described how he saw a recent change in Handy caused by him taking legal highs and drinking.
He said the couple had since split up.
For assault Handy, aged 26, was jailed for 10 months, for damaging the TV two months concurrent, for smashing the door he was jailed for one month to run consecutively.
Judge John Warner said: "Your offending is aggravated by the fact that a child was present and you were in drink and had taken drugs."
