A WOMAN who had a hot metal spoon pressed into her hand was told the scar would remind her of the partner who inflicted it. Micah O’Brien had been melting wax in the spoon with a cigarette lighter before using it to injure the woman.
The incident happened while O’Brien was on police bail following an earlier assault on the same victim. Swansea Crown Court heard though the defendant was not supposed to even have any contact with the woman, the 28-year-old had continued to see her and had even proposed to her – a proposal which had been accepted.
Megan Jones, prosecuting, said the defendant and the woman had been in a relationship with a woman by the name of Sinead Riley for some two weeks when the first assault took place on November 17 last year – after a night out in Carmarthen O’Brien pushed the woman to the chest and pinned her against a wall in the street, and when two female passers-by intervened the defendant pushed them also. O’Brien was arrested, questioned, and released on bail on condition of non-contact with the victim.
The court heard that just 10 days later the couple were together in breach of that bail, and that O’Brien was melting wax in a spoon by using a cigarette lighter. The prosecutor said defendant then put the hot spoon on the woman’s hand “telling her she would now have a scar to remind you of me.” The incident was reported to police, and the defendant was arrested. Read about a man who stabbed his friend with a carving knife following a row about oral sex at a birthday party.
Micah O’Brien, of Water Street, Carmarthen, had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of assault by beating and one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) when the case came to be sentenced. The defendant has two previous convictions for six offences including burglary, possession of an offensive weapon, and possession of a bladed article.
Nicola Powell, for O’Brien, said having been bailed after the first incident the couple got back together, and the defendant proposed to Miss Riley – a proposal she accepted. The barrister said the relationship continued following the incident with the hot spoon before ending the following month, and O’Brien now realised it had been a relationship which was “doomed to fail”. She added that her client had been in a “dark place” in November last year but has since been benefiting from help and support while being held on remand in custody.
Recorder Paul Lewis QC noted that there was no evidence on the severity of the burn injury, and on whether any permanent scaring had been caused. He said the lack of such information was a problem seen “time and time” again in courts around the country, and was one which made it difficult for judges to categorise the harm caused by an assault.
The recorder said that given the length of time the defendant had spent on remand, the length of any sentence the court could impose would mean O’Brien being released almost immediately and therefore he was going to take the “exceptional course” of imposing a community order. For the ABH the defendant was given an 18 month community order with a rehabilitation course, and for each of the three batteries was fined £100. O’Brien was ordered to pay Miss Riley £500 compensation, and each of women he assaulted in the street £100 compensation.
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