Domestic abuser ordered girlfriend to lie to Leeds hospital nurses that she had been 'hit by a drone' after he sliced her eye open

The victim was told to tell nurses that she had been hit in the head by a drone in a bid to cover up the attack.

In a separate assault Joshua Newby punched his girlfriend repeatedly in the face and banged her head against the floor.

Newby, 28, continued to inflict violence on the woman after a domestic violence protection order was issued against him in a bid to protect her from abuse.

Leeds Crown Court heard the pair had been in an on-off relationship since April 2018.

The victim described the relationship as abusive from the start with him calling her names and being violent towards her.

Robert Galley, prosecuting, said Newby attacked the woman on November 11 last year.

He became angry with her for dripping candle wax on a ceramic tray he used for rolling joints of the drug spice.

Newby picked up the tray and threw it at her from a distance of about a metre.

It struck her to the left eye and caused a cut near her eyebrow.

Mr Galley said: "She started to cry and he told her to shut up because the neighbours would call the police."

The victim was too scared to leave the house to seek medical help but Newby agreed to take her to hospital at 2am the following morning.

The prosecutor said: "She was told to tell the nurses that a drone had flown in to her head."

Newby had a domestic violence protection order served on him on December 11.

The order was designed to prevent him from contacting the woman or attempting to move back into her home.

Newby continued to send text messages threatening to smash her windows.

He went to her home in Holbeck, Leeds, on December 21 at 6.30am.

Mr Galley said Newby told her he wanted a joint and grabbed the woman as he knew she had spice on her.

The defendant pulled her hair and repeatedly struck her head against the ground.

He knelt on top of her and took the spice from her before saying: "Don't worry I'm not robbing you."

He then delivered three or four "full blow" punches to her head until there was blood trickling down her face.

Newby told her: "See, I have split your f****** eye again now."

The victim picked up her phone and called the police but had it grabbed from her by Newby.

Officers were sent to the property after a missed call was registered.

She was taken to Leeds General Infirmary to have treatment on her eye.

Newby, of Brooklands View, Seacroft, Leeds, pleaded guilty to two offences of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The victim described in a written statement how she continued to live in fear of Newby.

She said: "I am so scared of what the defendant can do that I can't fully describe it.

"I cannot sleep at night because I think he might come.

"He made me addicted to spice because it was the only escape I could get from the fear of him."

The court heard Newby has previous convictions for domestic violence against former partners.

He was jailed in 2015 for attacking his then 16-year-old girlfriend by dragging her by the hair, stamping on her, punching her repeatedly and threatening her with a knife.

Newby was given a caution in 2010 for pushing another partner against railings.

He also has a conviction for racially aggravated public disorder.

Newby continued to blame his victim when interviewed by a probation officer about his latest offences.

Stuart Field, mitigating, said the attacks were linked to Newby's addiction to spice.

He said: "It was a shared habit with the complainant in these proceedings.

"That is what brought them together.

"A mutual interest and abuse of a toxic substance led to a toxic relationship."

"These are nasty offences against a vulnerable complainant and that is accepted.

"He knows that the court will have in mind a custodial sentence of some length bearing in mind his past history."

Newby was jailed for 18 months.

He was made the subject of a restraining order banning him from contacting the victim or going near her home.

Judge Simon Phillips QC said: "You showed no compassion."