A 49-YEAR-OLD man who injured his former partner with a meat cleaver has been jailed for grave and criminal assault.
Luis Abreu Dos Santos was sentenced today to six-and-a-half years in prison after attacking the woman in their St Helier flat in October when he discovered she was in a sexual relationship with another man. However, he denied that he tried to kill her.
Crown Advocate Matthew Maletroit, prosecuting, told the Royal Court that the defendant was ‘no longer in a loving relationship’ with the woman and had confronted her with the meat clever and a kitchen knife after reading her phone messages which indicated she thought she might be pregnant with someone else’s child.
The woman suffered a fractured skull and a number of cuts, but Dos Santos maintained that he only tried to ‘scare her’ and claimed the majority of the injuries she sustained were the result of a physical struggle the pair got into.
Advocate Mark Boothman, defending, said his client’s early 999 call immediately after the incident showed that he realised what he did was wrong and was also a form of early guilty plea.
Following a five-day trial in the Royal Court in April, a jury was unable to reach a unanimous or majority verdict on the attempted murder charge against Dos Santos.
Dos Santos was also given a restraining order preventing contact with his former partner.
