A MAN who viciously attacked his partner, a woman half his age, after they split up, has been jailed.


Judge Rhys Rowlands told long distance trucker John Andrew Doyle (46) that it “beggared belief how any man could inflict these sorts of injuries on a vulnerable young woman.”
 

Doyle of Longfield, Chirk, admitted assaulting Charlotte Hannah Watkins (24), occasioning her actual bodily harm, at her home in Glyn Ceiriog, on September 29.
Mold Crown Court heard how he forced his way into her home and repeatedly punched her and head-butted her.
 

She was able to escape and seek help the following morning.
The victim feared that he intended to kill her during the ordeal.
He claimed that he could recall nothing of it.
 

Earlier that month he had assaulted her in the street – after tricking her to attend a local bank.
Doyle was jailed for 21 months and a five year restraining order was made under which he is not to approach Mrs Watkins.
He was also banned from entering the village of Glyn Ceiriog.
 

Prosecutor Emmalyne Downing said the five month relationship ended in August when Mrs Watkins “saw signs of his temper”.
On September 9 he contacted her to say that he had put money in her account and that she should check it urgently.
But as she went to the bank’s hole-in-the-wall machine she heard a noise behind her and he was there.
He told her “there is nothing in there” and he assaulted her by grabbing her arm and twisting it.
 

While on bail late on September 29 she answered the door and the defendant pushed his way in.
He closed the door, locked it and put the key in his pocket.
She ran upstairs crying, he followed right behind her telling her she should not have called the police.
The defendant then punched her to the eye before punching her about eight times and head-butting her three or four times.


He stopped and sat on the bed, speaking to himself, and lit a cigarette.
“The next thing she recalls is being on the bed with him repeatedly punching her again,” Miss Downing explained.
She blacked out, awoke at 9am lying on the bed, he was in the room with his eyes flickering and she believed that he had taken an overdose.
The victim was able to take the keys from his clothes and fled.
 

She ended up with badly bruised and swollen eyes and multiple bruising and swelling to the head and body.
In a victim impact statement she told how she had been physically sick, suffered panic attacks and depression, was struggling to sleep, and honestly felt that he had intended to kill her.


Mark Connor, defending, said that his client was brought up in Chirk and ran his own garage business in Spain until he closed it because of the economic crisis.
The relationship with the victim had been a good one with many positive features.
She had, with his assistance, been able to have overnight care of her children.
 

But the relationship became “toxic” for a number of reasons.
Doyle was sorry that he found himself before the court again but was realistic and appreciated that it had to be immediate imprisonment.