Man stamped on head of partner’s teenage daughter who called him a ‘cuckoo’

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A carpenter has been jailed for stamping on the head of his partner’s teenage daughter after she branded him a “manipulative cuckoo”.

Alexander Barker, 34, flew into a rage and launched the savage attack on university student Georgia Hobbis after she sarcastically told him: “Bye babes, loves you.”

A court heard the victim had made a string of “snide remarks” and had asked Barker “Are you retarded?” when he told her she had an attitude problem.

Barker then lost his temper, ran at her and kicked her to the stomach - knocking her to the ground in her mother’s home in April last year.

As she curled up in a ball, Barker stamped on her head four or five times, leaving her with a gaping wound to her head which bled heavily and needed seven stitches.

Weeks earlier, Barker had launched a similar attack on a colleague in a row about not being paid money for work he had done.

Barker approached fellow carpenter Martin Sheldon as he arrived at a property they had been working on in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, on 9 March.

He pushed Mr Sheldon to the ground and stamped on his head and body while repeatedly shouting: “I want my money.”

Mr Sheldon suffered a fractured cheekbone, swelling to his forehead and soft tissue injuries to his shoulder and elbow.

While on bail for that attack he also twice assaulted his partner Deborah Berry, who he had been in a relationship with since 2019, and on one occasion strangled her.

Barker, of Deansway, Warwick, went on to plead guilty to two assaults as well as inflicting grievous bodily harm and wounding.

He was jailed for a total of four years and eight months at Warwick Crown Court on Friday 12 November.

Sentencing, Judge Peter Cooke said: “You clearly have an entrenched inability to control your temper when things get on top of you in a domestic or work context.

“On the 9th of March you launched an unprovoked attack on Martin Sheldon, a carpenter working on the same site as you, with kicks and stamps which left him with a facial fracture.

“Sadly matters didn’t end there. Just weeks after you had been bailed you flew into a rage and kicked a door so savagely it flew off its hinges and knocked Deborah full in the face, knocking her out.

“It was an ill-tempered and thoroughly reckless act.

“Only ten days later you assaulted Deborah again. This was a much more worrying episode.

“It was not reckless, but quite deliberate and involved 30 seconds of manualstrangulation.”

The judge said the final attack arose after Ms Hobbis had come to think of Barker as “a manipulative cuckoo,” and had greeted him “with a series of snide remarks.”

He added: “You are quite incapable of shrugging off such a slight.

“You completely lost control and launched a savage attack on that young woman, knocking her to the floor and kicking or stamping on her.

“This time you were not attacking another able-bodied man.

“It was a 33-year-old kick boxer attacking an 18 or 19-year-old girl.”

Prosecutor Sophie Murray told the court how Barker also carried out the two attacks on Ms Berry during a row last April.

During the argument, when Barker said he was going to leave, she went into the bedroom to gather his belongings.

Miss Murray said: “While she was doing so, Barker kicked the door open with such force that it came off its hinges, causing it to strike her to the head, and she was knocked unconscious.”

Ms Hobbis found her mother unconscious and bleeding from her nose and head, as Barker paced around saying: “I said I would never be like my dad.”

About two weeks later another argument broke out after Ms Berry had asked him to make up with her daughter, which caused him to lose his temper.

Ms Murray said: “He shouted in her face before grabbing her around the throat with one hand and he squeezed hard for around 30 seconds before leaving in his van.”

Three weeks later Ms Hobbis arrived at the house, and when she did not give Barker a warm greeting, he complained that she had “an attitude problem.”

He was further anger when Ms Hobbis responded: “Why would I be nice to you, are you retarded? Why would I be nice to someone who beats up my mum?”

He then attacked her when she sarcastically added “Bye babes, loves you” as he went to leave the house.

When he was arrested, Barker claimed it was Ms Hobbis who had attacked him and that she must have hit her head when he got her off by pulling her to the floor.

Ms Murray added that Barker had previous convictions for battery as a juvenile, assault in 2008 and affray in 2013.

Ian Speed, defending, said: “He was frustrated he was that he had not been paid – no excuse.

“And frustrated he was with the relationship, but that is also no excuse.”

Mr Speed said that after the first incident he would have submitted Barker needed anger management, but added: “He knows he’s going to remain in custody now.”

SWNS