Derry man jailed for subjecting vulnerable woman to sustained and savage attack

A Derry man who subjected a vulnerable woman to a sustained and savage attack has been jailed at the local Crown Court. 

Conor John Paul Colhoun (29) whose address was given as care of Maghaberry Prison where he's been in custody since attacking his victim on March 9 of last year.

The court heard  had twenty-seven previous criminal convictions, several of them for offences of violence.

The woman had been in a month long relationship with Colhoun,and the court heard she was attacked both inside and outside Colhoun's flat at Ballinska Heights in the Northland Road area of the city.

After his arrest Colhoun told the police "if she's saying I pushed down the stairs then I hope she broke her neck".

Local residents who witnessed the attack alerted the police. When the officers arrived they found the victim hysterical, disorientated, bleeding heaving from facial injuries and with cuts on both legs.

The court heard that   the police found clumps of he victim's hair as well as blood splattered both inside the outside Colhoun's flat.

Among the woman's injuries were a swollen and closed left eye, swelling over her top lip with a laceration on the left side, bruising to the left side of the chest wall, grazed on both knees and swelling the bruising to her left lower thigh.

The  court was told that  under caution Colhoun "laughed and said that he said those things in anger and stated that he was a bad bastard when it comes to responding to angry messages. He stated this on a number of occasions and said he gives worse than he gets".

Judge Rafferty said the case was yet another example of the scourge of domestic violence.

"I have looked at the photographs of her injuries and they are very distressing. During his interview he was callous in the way he spoke about the injured party and said he wished she had broken her neck. Clearly he represents a negative attitude towards women", he said.

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As well as jailing Colhoun for thirty-eight months Judge Rafferty also imposed a five year Restraining Order.