Man jailed for attacking partner at her Holywell home

Carl Dakin, of Maes Rhydwen in Whitford, appeared at Mold Crown Court for sentence on Tuesday.

The 40-year-old had previously admitted wounding or causing grievous bodily harm without intent against Chloe Vaughan in Holywell on May 21 last year.

Karl Scholz, prosecuting, told the court the defendant and victim, who have a child together, had been in a relationship for around seven years prior to the 2021 offence.

The relationship had been "characterised by violence," he said - with the defendant having twice been convicted for attacking her in the past.

In 2015, he was handed a community order for shaking her violently in the street, punching her in the face and pushing her against a brick wall, before pulling and dragging her around "like a rag doll."

Then in 2017 he punched her in the face again, chipping her tooth and causing her nose to bleed.

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He also grabbed her by the hair on that occasion and dragged her to a bathroom, where he tried to put a bar of soap in her mouth.

On that occasion, he received a suspended sentence and was made the subject of a restraining order; which he breached six months later and received another community order.

In the latest incident, he turned up at her home "nine out of ten" on a scale of intoxication.

The police were called and when they arrived she was found to be very distressed, with a number of visible injuries.

These included a lump and cut over one eye and a deformed wrist - which turned out to be fractured.

Initially the victim said Dakin had punched her in the face and kicked her while she lay on the floor.

Carl Dakin. Image: North Wales Police

Police found Dakin, fully dressed and asleep on his living room floor about an hour after the incident.

In a later statement to the police, Ms Vaughan amended her statement to say she was intoxicated and thought the defendant had pushed her and fallen on top of her.

She said she didn't recall him kicking her.

A few weeks later she withdrew from the prosecution process.

Not long before his trial, which was to take place in July this year, Dakin admitted the offence - on a basis.

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The basis was that he accepted pushing her to the face, causing her to fall, and that she 'grabbed" his arm, pulling him on top of her.

According to him, she landed on her wrist - causing it to break - and as she tried to get up, he pushed her and caused her to hit her nose.

In a statement read to the court, the victim said she'd been left with plates and screws in her arm, as well as a scar.

Oliver King, defending, said while the victim's later statement made clear she may have "exaggerated" the level of violence used against her, she had still suffered a "nasty injury" in her home at the hands of the defendant - who has a record of assaulting her.

"He can't get away from that," he told the court.

"He is realistic that a custodial sentence will be at the forefront of the court's mind."

Mr King said the defendant rook seriously his responsibility to his child and the support of his former partner.

The defendant had completed a "building better relationships" programme with the probation service in 2019 - but Mr King said the tools he learned are of "limited use when he's drunk."

Judge Niclas Parry said: "For the third time, you're before the court for using violence against your partner.

"[You've had] chance after chance. In May last year, dreadfully under the influence of drink again, you assaulted her."

The Judge handed down a 22 month custodial sentence, to be served immediately.

A five year restraining order was also put in place to prevent him approaching her residence, in order to give the victim a "bolthole" if the needs one.

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