JAILED: Tipton thug who wrecked home of pregnant ex
A thug who went on a wrecking spree at the home of a former partner while she was pregnant with his child has been jailed for three years.
Ross Doody burst in at 2.30am and warned the woman: 'Watch me smash your flat up and terrorise you,' Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.
The 22-year-old punched a man at the address in the face, broke a mirror, lamp and shelf unit and pushed over a TV, explained Miss Wendy Miller, prosecuting.
Then he dragged the woman to the floor by her hair while she tried to ring the police from the premises in Princes End, Tipton, continued the lawyer.
Doody, who had 24 previous convictions involving 43 separate offences, had been in a seven month relationship with the victim. They had split two months before the incident and he had been banned from any contact with her, the court heard.
The defendant rushed into the flat after she opened the front door to another person and walked away after the angry rampage only to return soon afterwards to kick the front door so hard the frame splintered, it was said.
His former partner was taken to hospital for a check up because she was 17 weeks pregnant and was then advised to stay with relatives for her own safety. The defendant blamed the incident on a 'drunken mistake.'
Miss Miller revealed: "While she was away every other item of her property in the flat was destroyed. Paint was thrown everywhere." It was not suggested that the defendant was responsible.
But Doody had punched and robbed a man of a mobile phone in Princes End High Street on July 14 and stolen a phone from a woman in the same road on September 20, a week after being arrested and bailed for the first offence.
Mr Jasvir Mann, defending, said: "He has faced up to his crimes. He knows he has done wrong and must learn to check his anger. He wants to change his ways in the future and have a family life."
On his release from prison Doody hoped to resume the relationship with the victim who had said she wanted an end to the court order restraining him from making contact with her, the court was told.
The defendant, of no fixed address, admitted robbery, theft, criminal damage and breaching the restraining order. He was sent to prison by Judge Robin Onions who told him: "You took no notice of the court order and were involved in an unpleasant incident in the flat. Somebody, presumably somebody you knew, later went there and destroyed everything the woman had in an act of pure vindictiveness."
