A man has been sentenced for assault after he injured his girlfriend when he physically forced her out of his van on the way to her Rottingdean home.
Jacob Lovelock, 38, reacted angrily to a comment made by Bethany Williams, pulled over at the side of the road “in a rural area” and ordered her to get out.
Christopher Prior, prosecuting, told Hove Crown Court that it was about 10pm at night and they were in the Rottingdean area but she didn’t know where.
She landed on her hands and knees by the side of the road and suffered cuts to her forehead and legs, grazing to her ribs and back pain as an existing injury was aggravated.
Mr Prior said that Lovelock had been in a relationship with Miss Williams but that it had been deteriorating.
She told police that he would become angry over comparatively minor things and would accuse her of talking too much, the court heard.
Things came to a head as he drove her back to Old Place Mews, The Green, Rottingdean, on Monday 31 July last year.
Miss Williams said that she had been drinking – four or five Jack Daniels and cokes – when Lovelock became angered by something that she said during the journey.
On Friday (11 October) Mr Prior told the court: “Mr Lovelock began shouting at her and telling her to get out of the van.
“It was dark and she didn’t know where she was and had no way of getting home. Mr Lovelock leaned across her, opened the passenger door and he pushed her out of the vehicle.”
When she got back in, he pushed her out a second time and threw her handbag and other belongings out after her.
She was lying on the floor “to try to prevent any further incident” and asked him to take her back to her flat.
In a statement handed to the court, Miss Williams said that Lovelock was moody and, as their relationship broke down, became angry, violent and aggressive towards her.
And being dumped out of his van had left her feeling unsafe and, since then, with feelings of anxiety.
Greg Johnson, defending, said that Lovelock had no previous convictions for violence, adding: “It was never Mr Lovelock’s intention to cause any injury. It was only his intention to eject her from the van.”
He had been asking her to get out for about 15 minutes before he resorted to forcing her out. Mr Johnson said: “He would like to apologise to the court and to her for causing her injury.”
Lovelock, of Goodwyns Road, Dorking, admitted assaulting Miss Williams, causing her actual bodily harm (ABH).
The judge, Recorder Geraint Jones, said that in legal terms: “She was riding in his van. He terminated her licence to be in it. She refused to leave it and he used force to remove her from it.
“The basis (of his guilty plea) must be that his force went beyond that which was reasonable in the circumstances.”
Lovelock denied assaulting Miss Williams at her home and on Brighton seafront on two other occasions and Mr Prior asked for the charges to lie on the file.
Recorder Jones told Lovelock: “You pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm to Bethany Williams.
“It was late and dark. One could understand why a woman might not want to get out of your vehicle in those circumstances.
“You were entitled to require Miss Williams to leave your vehicle although it might not have been the gallant thing to do.”
In the event, he used excessive force and was made the subject of a 12-month community order and told to do 60 hours of unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay £300 towards the cost of the prosecution.
