Man taped belt to knife and threatened to ‘cut face off’ partner

Patrick Tobin (30), with an address at Casement Street in Ballymena, also pulled clumps of hair from his partner.

He appeared via video link from Maghaberry Prison and admitted a number of charges including possessing a knife with intent to commit assault; assault occasioning actual bodily harm; making a threat to kill and causing damage to household items and a vehicle in April this year.

A prosecutor said police were called to an address in Ballymena by a third party and the injured party said she was wakened by her partner who asked her to make breakfast and when she said he would have to do it himself “he became angry”.

The court heard he “pestered” her to get up and when she went to use the bathroom he hit her from behind on the back of the head causing her to fall against a wall causing swelling to her right eye. The woman said Tobin elbowed a glass panel on a bathroom door causing it to smash and when she went to the kitchen he grabbed and pulled her hair. The prosecutor said the woman “retreated back upstairs” and Tobin followed and “continued to grab her hair with so much force that clumps of it were removed”. She again fell to the ground but managed to get up and left the property. She returned home around 6pm and around 7.30pm Tobin arrived and banged on the door. When she opened the door on the promise that he would calm down he became aggressive and at 10.30pm he took a knife from the kitchen, wrapping a belt round the handle and secured it with ‘cellotape’. The woman said Tobin told her he was doing it to “cut the face off you”. The woman left and as she stood outside the defendant threw a Cactus Jack bottle at her car, smashing a rear window. The woman “retreated into the damaged vehicle and locked the doors” and Tobin came out. When she said she was calling police he “disappeared”. Tobin then returned to the house and locked all doors and when police arrived damage was noted to the car and also two TVs in the property. The woman told police it was not the first time the defendant had behaved aggressively towards her.

The court heard the defendant had no record in Northern Ireland but did have a Republic of Ireland record. A defence solicitor said Tobin had previously been granted bail but had no suitable address in Northern Ireland and had spent two months in custody. He said Tobin was remorseful. The lawyer said the threats were made in the “heat of the moment” and he had “no intentions of carrying them out”. He claimed a “verbal dispute” had broken out and after the woman had “thrown some punch” the “red mist then came down” but Tobin “takes no pride” in what he had done. The lawyer said Tobin had the knife when the woman “arrived back with other parties” but he had no intention of using it. He said the defendant returned to the property “to hand himself in to the police”. The solicitor said Tobin hoped he and his partner would “reconcile” and added the woman had been in touch with his office “wanting him released from custody as soon as possible so she can recommence residing with” the defendant.

Deputy District Judge Noel Dunlop said the defendant had an “atrocious” record and it had been “totally unacceptable behaviour”. He said he had already served the equivalent of a four months jail term and handed down a six months sentence, suspended for two years.