Andrew Gray, 43, from Nottingham, has been jailed after carrying out two violent assaults on a woman while drunk, shortly after being released from prison
A drunk man slammed a woman’s head against the walls of a bedroom during a violent attack.
Andrew Gray, 43, from Nottingham, refused to take the woman to hospital and told her not to tell anyone what had happened, instead using Sellotape to cover the wounds he had inflicted, Nottingham Crown Court heard. A month later, the dad-of-two kicked the same woman in the ribs and punched her in the face after drinking vodka, before fleeing the scene. The victim said she saw Gray as “like the Incredible Hulk” and lived in fear following the attacks.
At the time, Gray had recently been released after serving a full six-year prison sentence for a robbery in which he threatened a woman with a machete in her own home while her young child watched, Nottinghamshire Live reports.
Sentencing Gray to two years and nine months in jail, Judge Philip Head said: “It is clear that most, if not all of your violence on your record is due to your alcohol abuse.
“This was dreadful violence when she took a chance on you and gave you a roof over your head and took you in when you had been released from prison. What you then did to her was a gross abuse of her hospitality and generosity.”
David Allan, prosecuting, said the first assault took place at the victim’s Nottingham home on May 30 last year. He said the defendant began arguing with her when she returned home from a memorial service for her father and then followed her upstairs, where he attacked her.
Mr Allan said: “She said he grabbed her by the hair pulling her around and smashed her into the walls. She said he pushed her to the floor and stamped on her ribs and face and that she lost consciousness. He then refused to let her go to hospital and told her not to tell her friend about the reason for her appearance.”
A month later, on June 30, the pair got into another argument after drinking, during which Gray “kicked her several times to the stomach and kicked her to the face”, the court heard.
The prosecutor said: “In her victim impact statement, she describes having constant nightmares to the point she did not want to go to sleep saying he was ‘like the Incredible Hulk’ and that she was scared. She said she is currently working with Nottingham City Council to find her somewhere to stay where she will be safe.”
Gray, of Abercarn Way, Bulwell, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault. He has 45 previous offences, including the machete robbery in 2018 and two other domestic violence incidents.
Lucky Thandi, mitigating, said her client has been on remand for the past eight months. She said: “There is plainly a very different side to him. He has, quite frankly, had a problem with alcohol for a long time. He has two grown-up children of his own and a supportive family and friends around him. What holds him back is his behaviour and only he can change that.”
The judge also imposed a three-and-a-half-year restraining order.
