Pliers wielder jailed for tooth abuse
A Scarborough man who threatened to rip out his former partner’s teeth with pliers has been imprisoned.
York Crown Court jailed Andrew John Henry, from Ling Hill, Newby, after he admitted wounding a woman with a knife, threatening to cut her throat and to tear her teeth out.
Henry, 34, also threw furniture at the woman and threatened her with the improvised weapon, which was a knife attached to a copper pole. He was sentended to 39 weeks in jail and told that, despite his victim only suffering cuts to her hand, his threats were so dire that the matter had been made far more serious.
Prosecuting counsel Felicity Davies informed the court that the pair split from their right-year relationship in July 2009, and that it had been so acrimonious that court orders prevented the former couple from seeing each other.
Henry, who has a child with his victim, entered his ex’s flat at around 8pm on 23 July 2009 through a window and reportedly looked manic and scary. The victim was then hit over the head and momentarily passed out before she awoke to discover that she was covered in blood.
She then tried to defend herself but Henry attacked her and said she had a choice between having her throat cut and losing a thumb. He then proceeded to hack at her thumb joint with a knife while bracing her hand against a coffee table.
After this he prodded her with used drug needles and tried to remove one of her teeth using a pair of pliers.
The victim’s landlord, who passed a normal-acting Henry in the hall, found his tenant distressed and in need of medical attention. She was treated for cuts and multiple bruising in hospital.
Upon his arrest later that day Henry denied ever visiting the flat and said his victim must have been attacked by one of her many enemies that lived locally.
Henry’s representative Andrew Semple said his client had been introduced to drugs by his former partner and claimed that when he was not under the influence of drugs and alcohol that he was a decent man. He also said that the couple’s young daughter had been effectively taken into care.
The woman has since informed Henry that she is again pregnant and he has said that he wants to have access to his children.
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