Man jailed after he repeatedly punched girlfriend as she drove with children
A dad broke his partner’s nose as she drove 70mph along the M4 causing their car to crash while their children sat in the backseats.
Gareth Davies attempted to run from the scene before two members of the public pinned him down.
Davies, 27, had travelled to the Porthcawl Truck Gathering with his now ex, his son and her daughter, both aged three, a sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court heard on Tuesday.
He became intoxicated before the four left the show in Davies’ partner’s car shortly after midnight.
Hannah Friedman, prosecuting, told the court how Davies began arguing with his ex, accusing her of speaking to other men at the show.
He became aggressive towards her and then punched her to the face, causing her to bleed.
A scan at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Bridgend later showed the punch had broken her nose.
While the crazed defendant continued to assault her, Davies’ ex pulled into the Texaco petrol station at junction 35 of the M4.
CCTV footage played in court showed Davies leave the vehicle, walk around to the driver’s door and pull his ex out of the car before both fell to the floor and he continued to assault her.
As she tried to get the children out of the car, Davies removed his shoe and used it to hit her to the face.
Both then returned to the vehicle and she drove off, before stopping minutes later at a nearby car park where Davies got into the driver’s seat, despite his ex’s pleas to not drive the vehicle while intoxicated.
Ms Friedman explained: ‘He began driving erratically close to the car in front and he then left the motorway at junction 34.’
At this point the children were crying in the back seat, Ms Friedman added, before Davies lost control travelling around a bend and crashed into a hedge at the roadside.
At 1.56am officers from South Wales Police arrived at the scene, before paramedics arrived shortly after 2am.
The young boy told South Wales Police: ‘Daddy was driving the car. Maybe now he will stop being mad.’
The court also heard how one of the children had vomited during the ordeal.
Davies’ partner suffered a string of nasty injuries, including to the right temple, right eye socket, collarbone, both arms and abdomen, as well as a broken nose.
In a victim impact statement she said: ‘I haven’t been sleeping well since it happened and I don’t leave home. I am getting constant flashbacks. I want to move house because I don’t want him knowing where I live.
‘Due to the injuries from the assault I don’t like looking at myself in the mirror. I feel embarrassed. My daughter sees my injuries every day and knows how they were caused.’
Ben Waters, for Davies, told the court his client ‘in no way minimises his offending on this occasion’.
‘He is ashamed and appalled by his behaviour,’ Mr Waters said.
He explained how Davies had become stressed while often working seven days a week in his burger van, and had drunk alcohol in excess on the day for the first time in a while after a long period of abstinence.
Davies, of The Meadows in Usk, Monmouthshire, was sentenced for assault occasioning actual bodily harm of his then girlfriend and for breaching the conditions of a suspended sentence handed to him last year for assault occasioning actual bodily harm of a previous partner, theft, disclosure of private photos, dangerous driving and possession of cannabis.
Recorder Celia Hughes, sentencing Davies, told him: ‘This was an appalling offence in front of two young children which went on for some time. You were lucky it did not result in serious injury to your family and other members of the public.’
Davies received two years, half of which he will serve in custody and the rest on licence.
Recorder Hughes also imposed a restraining order preventing him from approaching or contacting his ex for at least five years.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.