Beware

Thug who tried to
"beat the baby out" of
pregnant girlfriend
jailed for 10 years Craig Thomas, 33, repeatedly hit his victim
in the stomach in what a judge described as
one of the worst cases of domestic
violence he had ever seen A thug who attacked his pregnant girlfriend,
threatening to "beat the baby out of her",
has been jailed for 10 years. Craig Thomas, 33, repeatedly hit his victim
in the stomach in what judge Neil Bidder
described as one of the worst cases of
domestic violence he had ever seen, WalesOnline reported . Cardiff Crown Court heard how Thomas, of
Trenchard Drive in Llanishen, Cardiff, met
the victim a few years ago when she was
working as a dancer in one of the city’s
clubs. They became friendly and Thomas had
comforted her when she told him about a
former partner who had been violent
towards her. The pair started a relationship earlier this
year and the defendant moved into her
home. It took about a week and a half for Thomas
to begin acting violently towards his
girlfriend, it was said in court, starting on a
weekly basis and soon becoming a daily
occurrence. The relationship lasted a couple of months,
until Thomas was arrested. The court heard how, on one occasion, he
hit his victim round the head with a hammer
it before taking her to the kitchen to clean
the blood up and telling her to make him a
cup of tea. “I was expecting to die in this relationship
and I thought this might be the time,” she
said in a statement read out in court. On 6 June this year, she told Thomas she
was pregnant – 11 weeks along. After this,
the court heard how his reign of terror
increased. This included three occasions when he took
a pipe off a vacuum cleaner and hit her
repeatedly on the stomach, saying he would
“beat the baby out of her". Her statement continued: “I was scared that
you would kill me and the baby.” As well as threatening to pull her teeth out
with pliers, the court heard how he had
threatened to cut her son’s face if she didn’t
do what he wanted. On another occasion, he assaulted her
because she didn’t have any sugar for his
cereal. Over the course of the relationship, the
court was told how he had also burnt the
victim with cigarettes, head-butted, kicked
and punched her. One on occasion, she was so terrified of
Thomas that she wet herself. At one point, a friend took the victim to a
local A&E department with her injuries. She
told staff there that her partner had beaten
her but she didn’t report it to the police at
that time, claiming she was scared of what
he might do. The violence finally came to police attention
after she ran out of the house in her
pyjamas one night to a nearby garage, the
court heard, where one of the garage
workers had described her as looking “very
battered". She was taken to A&E and Thomas was
arrested. When interviewed by police, Thomas first
denied ever assaulting his victim. He had
also lied to police, saying her injuries were
the result of self-harm, but he later pleaded
guilty to his crimes in court. As a result of the attacks, the victim has said
she has permanent cosmetic damage to her
ear, multiple scars and suffers facial
spasms, and is worried she won’t be able to
carry on her dancing career due to the
cosmetic damage. The court heard how Thomas, who also has
a previous conviction for assaulting a former
partner, had partly blamed his violent
behaviour on his cocaine use. The Hon judge Bidder said Thomas’ crimes
were “an appalling catalogue of very serious
violence,” and that: “This is one of the worst
cases of domestic abuse I have
encountered.” Thomas had pleaded guilty to three charges
of attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm,
one of wounding with intent to do grievous
bodily harm and one of wounding inflicting
grievous bodily harm. The judge gave Thomas with a concurrent
prison sentence of 10 years in total for his
five charges, as well as £120 costs. A restraining order has also been placed on
the defendant, forbidding him from
contacting the victim or her son. The judge
said luckily there were “no injuries caused
immediately” to the victim’s baby