Drug-addled Wakefield dad assaulted mum as she held their two-week-old, later claiming she wasn't his daughter
A drug-taking dad hit the mother of his two-week-old baby as she carried her, and later callously claimed she was not even his.
Nathan Sturgeon kicked the house door from its hinges, “bombarded” the woman with abusive messages and accused her of cheating on him.
In a victim impact statement, read by prosecutor Laura McBride to Leeds Crown Court this week, the woman said: “I do not even know how to feel. He has sucked everything out of me. I’m not who I once was.
“I want him to sort himself out and get the help. He is capable of being a good dad but has fully lost himself now.”
She added that she had hit “absolutely rock bottom” and had “never felt as lost in her life”.
The court heard that the couple had been a relationship for a year but separated in April of this year, but despite that, 35-year-old Sturgeon would continue to turn up at her home in Wrenthorpe.
On the evening of April 24, they argued over the sale of a motorbike before he struck her to the back of the head with an open palm, as she was carrying their newborn daughter. It was reported to the police but not pursued.
On June 5, Sturgeon had been out with friends but he was annoyed when his partner asked him to return home. Arriving at around 1.30am, he became abusive, called her vile names from outside and banged on the windows and doors.
He left and returned several times, banging on the windows and saying he wanted to see his daughter. He damaged a wing mirror before he kicked the door of the house from its hinges.
When inside he damaged an electric fan and pushed his partner into a door frame. She later contacted police again and was scared about what he may do after taking drugs.
He was arrested and later bailed, but Sturgeon then bombarded the woman with messages making the claims that their daughter was not his, accusing the woman of cheating on him.
Messages then “became more menacing”, in which he made threats to her ex partner - claiming she was with him - and then accused her of having an affair with a personal trainer.
Sturgeon, of Lupset Crescent, Wakefield, later admitted two counts of assault, two of criminal damage, stalking and Section 51 using violence to secure entry to a premises. He only has one previous conviction.
Mitigating, Nick Murphy said: “He is prepared to accept that he has done wrong and make admissions. For a man of 35 is very lightly convicted. He has no offences of violence and nothing to suggest what caused such an escalation of behaviour. Drug use appears to lie at the very root of it.”
He said that since being held on remand, Sturgeon had been putting his time to “good effect” and has become clean of drugs, despite the well-documented availability of illicit drugs behind bars.
Judge Christopher Batty acknowledged that due to the sentencing guidelines, immediate custody would mean he would be free in just a matter of weeks because of time already served on remand.
Instead, he gave him a 27-week jail sentence, suspended for two years, a nine-month drug treatment requirement, 10 rehabilitation days and and domestic violence course he must attend consisting of 31 sessions. He was also given a five-year restraining order to keep him away from the victim.