A drunken brute who put a woman through a two-and-
A drunken brute who put a woman through a two-and-a-hour ordeal of violence after locking her up in her own home was jailed for 12 months at the Old Bailey today.
(thurs)
Paul Waller, 31, punched and kicked the terrified mum repeatedly as she tearfully begged for him to stop.
Eventually the badly bruised 30-year-old woman was forced into her bedroom and pushed onto her bed.
She ended up naked from the waist down but a jury cleared Waller of indecent assault after accepting his account that the clothes came off in a struggle.
So ashamed was he of his actions that Waller broke off the attack and led the woman to a telephone kiosk where he dialled 999 and asked her to turn him in to the police.
Waller was acquitted by the jury of indecent assault after he maintained that there was simply no sexual intent in his actions on the night of April 8 this year.
He denied removing his own trousers and underpants at the same time.
But Waller, of Hailsham Avenue, Streatham, south London, had already admitted false imprisonment and assault causing actual bodily harm in relation to the same incident.
The two-day trial heard how Waller attacked the woman after looking after her flat in Merstham, near Redhill, Surrey.
When she returned from a night out with pals in the early hours of the following morning, she found him outside the home drunk.
The woman allowed him in, but he turned violent and pounced, the court heard.
Prosecutor Matthew Pascall said: ‘He assaulted her, punching and kicking her.
‘In addition, on two occasions she attempted to leave the flat and he prevented her from doing that.
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Giving evidence the brunette said Waller was ‘very drunk and very angry’ throughout the incident.
‘He started shouting at me.
He kicked me on my left leg.
I can’t remember how many times.
He was punching me in the back of my head.
I covered my face with both arms.
‘
She said she managed to calm Waller down but after a while he told her:
‘You’re making me calm.
I don’t want to be calm.
I want to batter you again.
‘
But eventually he stopped after her clothes came off in the bedroom, she said.
‘He told me he was going to the telephone box to call police.
I was totally and utterly shocked.
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She said Waller walked her down to a telephone kiosk down the street.
‘He picked the phone up, dialled 999 and gave me the receiver.
‘
Moments later a police car and she saw Waller ‘open the door himself and get in.
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The court was told that in April 1998 Waller was fined by Southeast Surrey Justices for criminal damage after he smashed in a neighbour’s front door.
He was conditionally discharged for two years just three months later for using threatening abusive words and behaviour in a Brixton pub.
Mark Cotter, defending, said Waller knows he has got a drink problem and sooner or later he is going to have to confront it.
Passing sentence the judge, Mr Recorder Andrew Trollope, QC, told him he subjected the woman to not ‘inconsiderable violence in an alarming and frightening course of conduct over approximately two-and-a-half hours.
‘She was injured as a result of your assaults on her and she was plainly extremely frightened.
‘You were very drunk and in my judgment out of control for much of that period if not all of it.
‘She was justified in saying as she did that she did not know what would happen to her.
You locked her in her flat and prevented her leaving despite the fact she attempted so to do on more than one occasion.
‘
The judge said Waller was ‘capable of being industrious and of good behaviour’ when he does not drink excessively.
‘But when you do you are prone to highly unacceptable levels of violence and disruptive behaviour.
It is a problem that will have to be addressed or the future for you is bleak indeed.
‘
Waller waved to friends and relatives in the public gallery as he was jailed for 12 months for false imprisonment with nine months concurrent for the assault.
He has already served three months behind bars while on remand so he should be released in three months time.
ends
