A 33-YEAR-OLD man who repeatedly punched a woman, bit her cheek and throttled her while saying she was going to die has been jailed for three years and seven months.
During what the judge described as a “brutal and sustained attack”, William Watton-Roberts was heard telling his victim: “I swear I’m going to bury you tonight. I’m going to put you in your grave.”
Neighbours heard the woman screaming and rescued her by pulling her out of the flat.
The Superior Number of the Royal Court – which convenes for the most serious cases – heard that Watton-Roberts pushed his way into the woman’s flat and attacked her on the evening of 18 August last year, two months after he had been released from prison for other offences.
Crown Advocate Carla Carvalho, prosecuting, said that once he entered the flat he began punching the woman.
She tried to reach the front door but he grabbed her by the hair and dragged her back.
As she lay face-down on the floor he got on her back and pulled her head up by the hair to punch her.
He also bit her in the face and choked her, making the threats to kill her as he did so.
“She thought she was going to die,” the Crown Advocate added.
She was left with extensive cuts and bruises and it is not known whether the bite mark to her cheek will leave a permanent scar, the court heard.
When Watton-Roberts was arrested he at first gave no-comment answers. He later said that the woman had assaulted him first, by hitting him with a frying pan, and he had acted in self-defence.
The court also heard that he was seen in the town centre the week before the attack on a bicycle which had been reported stolen, and was found to be carrying cannabis at the time.
Crown Advocate Carvalho added that Watton-Roberts’s mobile phone was also found to contain footage he had recorded of a sentencing in the Royal Court, which resulted in a charge of contempt of court.
She said that Watton-Roberts had a long list of previous convictions for assaults, drug offences and breaches of court orders, and was deemed at very high risk of reconviction.
The advocate recommended a sentence of three years and three months.
Advocate James Bell, defending, argued for a shorter sentence, saying his client pleaded guilty “at an early stage”.
He said the woman hit Watton-Roberts with a pan, leaving him with a laceration to his upper lip that required 14 stitches.
Advocate Bell said: “He retaliated. That first act of violence against him doesn’t excuse, but does explain, why he reacted in the way that he did.”
And he added that Watton-Roberts immediately apologised for filming proceedings in court.
Jurats jailed him for three years for the grave and criminal assault, six months for contempt of court and one month for handling the stolen bike, all to run consecutively. There was a concurrent one-week sentence for possessing drugs.
Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae told him: “Notwithstanding the provocation and your guilty pleas, this was a brutal and sustained attack on your victim.”
The Jurats sitting were Jane Ronge, Steven Austin-Vautier, Kim Averty, Karen Le Cornu and Michael Berry.
