An East Cowes man who assaulted his partner before stealing her car and threatening to set it on fire has received a community order.
31-year-old Michael Knight had been out having a few drinks with his then-partner on the evening of 5th May when he became irate. She refused to get in the car with him after fearing that he was over the drink-drive limit.
Shouting at her to ‘get in the f**king car’, Knight then drove off and the victim found him in her own car when she returned home. She jumped into the passenger seat and took the keys out of the ignition whereupon Knight grabbed her by the wrist, shouting and screaming, and then pushed her to the ground causing bruising to her legs.
He then went on to call her a ‘f**king rat’ and ‘fish-hooked’ her, putting 2 fingers in her mouth and pulling her back. The victim managed to escape down an alleyway where she sought refuge with her attacker’s father and stayed the night there.
The following day, the victim found that her car was gone and her belongings were strewn in the middle of the road, including the baby’s pram.
Knight smashed up the car and posted a video on Facebook threatening to set it alight.
Prosecuting, Ann Smout said that the car – which the victim had bought for £8,750 just 4 weeks previously – was completely written off and that the victim also lost 4 days’ pay due to the loss of her car. She also had to incur additional childcare costs as well as the damage to her belongings, including a pair of hair straighteners worth £120. She also said that the victim’s mental health had been set back by a year.
Defending, Oscar Vincent outlined mitigation for his client saying that it was a one-off incident and that his client acknowledged he had acted in a reckless and disproportionately aggressive manner. Furthermore, his client had taken steps to address his behaviour including by self-referring to Inclusion where he has had 8 sessions since the incident.
Vincent also said that his client’s last similar offence was in 2018, although a man of the same name, age and address appeared in Island Echo’s Court round-up in January of this year having pleaded guilty to criminal damage.
Magistrates handed Knight an 18-month community order with 100 hours of unpaid work, a 9-month drug rehabilitation requirement and 30 rehabilitation days. He was also ordered to pay compensation of £870.
Ok but what we all want to know is was the car a black 1982 Pontiac Trans Am with a red swishy light on the front?
Lol!! My first reaction too!
A better sentence would have been an alcohol banning order for 5 years, and why have they ordered him to repay only a fraction of the costs? I hope he feels proud of himself. All his future partners should be warned by the police about his violent tendencies against woman. His poor victim must have been terrified.
alcohol banning order for 5 years,
really – what kind of drivel is that – not one person would ever adhere to such a criteria. Perhaps the courts should apply the same logic to a heroin addict and say “you are not allowed to take heroin” – like that will work at all.
the only way she will get compensation is if her car was insured, or that the court makes an order that his salary/benefits have a deduction before he gets it and paid to her until re-imbursed.
and you say…All his future partners should be warned by the police…seriously, what world do you live in – the police do not have the resources to follow people, find out who they are involved with and warn them off.
And so say all of us. Dave G is living in cloud cuckoo land.
There is a system in place, it is called Clares Law and I have no idea why it is not being rolled out into schools, it may well be, do schools still have what used to be called sex education classes. Her poor dad campsigned hard, and had tgis statite passed despite his awful grief at losing a child through domestic violence. Check it out folks
https://clares-law.com/who-created-clares-law/#:~:text=Clare's%20Law%20was%20created%20by,in%
Island echo maybe you ought to do a piece on this so that people are very aware of its existence. Also it happens to any gender orientation to o abuse is abuse. Wish it had been a statute when I was young but it wasn’t.
Alcohol isn’t the problem, its the people that can’t handle their drink
I see the most important thing were the £120 hair straighteners….
Not really, as they were mentioned after the loss of the car, 4 days pay and childcare costs. And I would assume they were mentioned because out of the damage to her personal belongings, the £120 hair straighteners were the most valuable single item.
Tiny tony little pecker
I hate that his brief said it was a one off, get up the yard… men like this are predisposed to being violent so no “self inclusion” should be anything to be “proud” of. God almighty I really hate men like this and I’d like to see them do that to a man like me because a fish hook would be the least of their concerns omg I’m vexed at this. he ain’t no man thinking hes big with a few pints in him why agdjeiruh3rhdjrb
I’d like to see them do that to a man like me
ahh ha ha ha – hark at the big man, giving it large from behind a keyboard. when you have picked yourself up off the floor after being floored by someone, you won’t be such the bigun then.
sangunius – you really are a clown for saying that – you just made yourself look so stupid.
Please just do one Islandr. You are such a prat…
He says 7 stone soaking wet unable to do a single leg takedown
lmao at all the DYELs downvoting me who wouldn’t be able to take an elbow
Why wasn’t he ordered to pay for the damage to the car? Why did the insurance company have to pay, costing us all more? Maybe the insurance co will sue him to recover their costs….
How has it cost us all more?
My personal favourite he is
Let’s hope she’s not back with him in a few months….
What an absolute donkey.. big tuff man! Well done kids must be proud of you