Rage soldier forgiven for horror attack

Squaddie punched, kicked, bit and stamped on head of his girlfriend

A SOLDIER from Oldham beat up his girlfriend after getting drunk because his budding career with the army was over.

Sidney McTighe (25) subjected his partner Emma Brophy to a horrific ordeal in which he stamped on her head, kicked her and bit her.

Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court was told it was not the first time he had been aggressive to her.

The 20-year old told police she had been convinced that her boyfriend of four years was going to kill her, and she was scared that she no longer knew what he was capable of.

McTighe, of Watergate Milne Court, Oldham, was given a 51-week jail sentence suspended for two years. The court heard that the pair decided to remain together despite what happened.

Mr Mark Angus, prosecuting, said that violence flared when McTighe arrived home drunk with two friends on January 26. He fought with one of the other men, and flew into a rage when his girlfriend told him he made her sick.

He pushed a take-away meal in her face, then began to punch her about the body and face.

When she attempted to leave the house, he grabbed her by the throat, threw her to the floor by her hair, and stamped on her head five times, before kicking her as she lay curled up in a ball on the floor.

McTighe then knelt by her side and bit her on the side of her face.

Mr Mark Fireman, defending, said his client had been discharged from the army after injuring his pelvis in a fall from a 12 foot-high wall during a training session.

On the night in question he had drunk to excess because of his problems, and was able to recall little of what happened.

He accepted what he had done, and was horrified that he had been able to hurt someone about whom he cared deeply.

He said McTighe had given up binge-drinking, and though he had not stopped completely, he was consuming far less.

He said the pair had resolved to continue to live together as a couple despite what had happened.

In passing sentence, Recorder Paul O’Brien told him: “You have previous convictions for battery, and assaulting a police officer some years ago, and since that time you have apparently not changed your ways.

“There is no doubt whatsoever that this offence passes the custody threshold. Incredibly, I am told that you propose to become reconciled and continue your relationship, and it seems to me that you can be given one last chance.”

McTighe, who pleaded guilty to a charge of assault causing actual bodily harm, was ordered to carry out 200 hours unpaid work in the community, and was warned that any breach of the suspended sentence would mean prison.