Tilney St Lawrence couple's relationship was "a car crash", court told
A relationship described by a solicitor as a “car crash” ended in a violent fight.
Jack O’Mahony had one final bust-up with Patrycja Swiderek after she had forgotten about food in the oven and fallen asleep following drinks with friends.
He swore at her and called her “stupid”.
Lynn Magistrates’ Court heard on Thursday that she then kicked and punched 26-year-old O’Mahony but he was found guilty of assault at trial for “excessive self-defence”.
The relationship, which was littered with violence and alcohol-fuelled arguments, had been the subject of 14 previous call-outs by police.
It came to a head on July 26 last year, four months after the couple had moved in together.
During the fight, O’Mahony grabbed Miss Swiderek by the throat and pinned her to the floor. The court heard that she was hitting him to get him off and she sustained a bite to her nose.
It was O’Mahony, of Cassandra Court, Tilney St Lawrence, who called police. He admitted to waking her and being verbally abusive but claimed Miss Swiderek had come at him first.
Solicitor Tiffany Meredith, mitigating, said it was important to note from the trial that both of them were found to be “credible” and both had injuries, including a “quite substantial black eye” for her client.
Miss Meredith told the bench: “Miss Swiderek was throwing things towards him, also throwing punches and kicks, hence your colleagues finding he was acting in self-defence in response to those actions by her.”
She added: “The previous call-outs had been by both parties, both parties had been previously arrested. It was a car crash of a relationship which they are both better off out of.”
O’Mahony was given a two-year community order with 60 days’ alcohol abstinence monitoring, 30 days on the Building Better Relationships programme and 20 days of rehabilitation activity.
There was compensation order but he was told to pay £620 costs and £95 victim surcharge. A one-year restraining order was imposed on him.
