Boat dweller jailed for scarring girlfriend (From The Oxford Times)

Boat dweller jailed for scarring girlfriend

11:00am Monday 18th February 2013 in News

A MAN who sliced a cut across his girlfriend’s neck during an argument has been jailed for 30 months.

Vincent Westwood, who lives on a canal boat in Oxford, committed what a judge called the “utterly reprehensible” crime on April 22 last year.

He admitted one count of unlawful wounding and one of common assault.

Judge Patrick Eccles was told at Oxford Crown Court how Westwood committed the acts against his partner at the time, Michaela Douglas, inside the canal boat where he lived.

He put his hand on her throat, pushed her against the wall and used a knife to make a one-and-a-half inch (4cm) long cut in her neck.

Christopher Hewertson, prosecuting, said Westwood’s victim had been left with a scar. He said: “She is extremely self-conscious and has to wear scarves in public.”

Westwood was jailed for 28 months for wounding and two months for assault, to run consecutively.