Telford man, 23, jailed for 'poking' woman with axe
A man who hit a woman in the face with an axe has been jailed.
Callum Doyle, 23, of Victoria Avenue, Wellington, in Telford, was convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) following a trial.
During his sentencing at Shrewsbury Crown Court, Judge Anthony Lowe, was told that Doyle had overslept for the trial but had not challenged the verdict.
The conviction also put him in breach of a suspended sentence order for an offence of causing racially or religiously aggravated fear of violence in January 2020.
Prosecutor Simon Rippon told the court the most recent incident had taken place in Telford on November 1, 2020.
He said it happened when Doyle was at a friend's house in Telford and was visited by a woman – a former partner.
After a row in the early hours where the woman had looked at Doyle's phone and seen a Facebook message from another woman, she had gone into another room.
Mr Rippon said Doyle followed her into the other room attempting to drag her by her hair with both hands.
Mr Rippon told the court: "He let go of her hair and picked up an axe and hit her a single time to the face. He hit her with the top of the axe, and not the blade – a poking motion, not a chopping motion."
The blow cut the woman's lip causing it to bleed and he then threw her shoes outside the property and kicked her out.
Mitigating Jas Mann said: "While extremely foolishly he did pick up the axe he had the good sense not to use the blade end and the incident was short-lived."
Judge Lowe sentenced Doyle to 25 months in prison – 15 months for ABH and ten months for activating the suspended sentence, and issued a restraining order preventing him contacting the victim for five years.
Handing down the verdict, he said Doyle needed to address his anger issues to avoid a repeated cycle of jail time.
He said: "You are 23 years of age and from where I am sitting and looking you are just throwing your life away. Whether this is all related to the ADHD and inability to manage your temper and anger, and work out how to deal with these things, but because of the the temper and aggression you are going up the scale of offending, you are going to end up spending time in prison and your life will pass you by.
"You have got to work out what causes it and what you can do to prevent it.
"You are going to have to work out why it is you behave the way you behave – not just on this occasion but previous occasions."
He added: "It was an assault with an axe by someone who has previous convictions for weapons, previous convictions for harassment and witness intimidation.
"It is a hugely dangerous weapon."
He added: "And it is not just the injury, it is the circumstances where the victim was confronted with such a frightening weapon, no matter how it was used."
