Binman narrowly avoids jail for drunken attack on girlfriend that fractured her elbow
A binman has narrowly avoided being sent to jail for beating up his then girlfriend in a drunken New Year's Eve rage.
Shrewsbury Crown Court heard that Wayne Bruce Lee Marsh, aged 36, of Coronation Drive, Donnington, Telford, is tackling his drink and anger problem since the incident when he attacked the woman in her home on New Year's Eve 2019.
But Judge Recorder David Lock KC, who also presided over Marsh's conviction during a trial, told the defendant that he had not fully grasped his responsibility for the assault which included an accusation of strangulation.
His supervisor at the Telford & Wrekin Council refuse service had sent the court a glowing reference for Marsh who is considered a "valued member of the team".
Marsh's girlfriend had suffered a fractured elbow and had bruising around her neck during an attack that started in the kitchen and was sustained on the stairs at her home.
"A jury accepted it had been an attempt to strangle her," said the judge who was pronouncing sentence for the charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm on Monday.
"For nearly four years you have stayed out of trouble, you are working, and you have an excellent reference from your supervisor," the judge said.
"It is a serious offence and it is disappointing that you maintain a version of events to probation that indicated that you have still not accepted responsibility for having committed this offence."
Marsh had insisted through his trial that he had been retaliating in his own defence but the judge said that "from the evidence that is plainly not the case."
