Hayden Norton Christmas Day assault on holiday in Cornwall

Hayden Norton was before Truro Crown Court on Friday for sentencing, having previously admitted one count of assault causing actual bodily harm (ABH).

Norton and his then-partner had been staying at St Mabyn, near Bodmin over the Christmas period last year.

At around 6.45pm on December 25, Christmas Day, police received a 999 call from a woman. In the background Norton could be heard saying he knew she was on the phone, and then her screaming she wasn’t.

In a second phone called Norton could be heard shouting: “Go drown yourself in that tub for all I care”, as well as “If police come here you better give the best f***ing performance of your life,” and “If you f**k me up I will drive my car through your building and make you suffer, you dirty little sl*g.”

Prosecutor Matthew Mortimer told the court that the argument had begun when the woman called her daughter on the phone, and Norton became frustrated.

The defendant was said to have thrown the woman across both sofas, slapped her twice on the face, then punched and kicked her multiple times. She ended up with a perforated ear drum.

In a victim impact statement, the woman described herself as feeling “broken,” adding: “He treated me like an animal.

“I want the court to know I am, or was, a capable, strong, successful woman. I’ve lost all that.

“I feel broken, mentally, physically and financially ruined.”

Ryan Murray, representing Norton, said: “It’s no excuse but it came at a time of personal tragedy.”

He explained that shortly before the incident, Norton’s brother had died in tragic circumstances and “that led to a downturn in Mr Norton’s mental health.”

This was something he had suffered with “on and off,” said Mr Murray, who added the defendant had been diagnosed as being bipolar.

He said Norton had turned to alcohol, “which very rarely helps”.

However, Mr Murray said that having been remanded in custody until the end of January, upon his release on bail Norton had moved to the Leighton Buzzard area of Bedfordshire and placed on curfew.

He had found employment and, when his mother died earlier this year, he “did not revert to old habits and kept his mental health onboard.”

Recorder John Trevaskis sentenced 51-year-old Norton to 32 weeks in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered that he pay £500 towards prosecution costs.

A restraining order was also made, preventing Norton from contacting his former partner, and banning him from entering a street in Christchurch, Dorset, for the next five years.

A second charge, of using coercive behaviour, which Norton had pleaded not guilty to, was ordered to lie on file.