Teenager who assaulted heavily pregnant partner jailed

A Shrewsbury teenager who admitted a series of assaults on his heavily pregnant partner has been jailed for 20 months.

18-year-old Keian Higham, also known as Keian Harley, will serve half his sentence in a young offenders’ institution and the rest on licence after being sentenced by Shrewsbury Crown Court.

The woman was several months pregnant with Higham's twins when he kicked her in Abbots Road in Shrewsbury after she met him to give him back some of his belongings, two weeks after she had told him she did not want to be with him anymore.

She rushed to hospital because she feared for her unborn children after the attack by their father.

Higham, who was 17 when the relationship began, had subjected the woman to six separate serious assaults and strangled her twice between June and November last year.

Prosecutor Mr Nicholas Tatlow said that the two were laying on Higham's bed on June 17 last year when they began arguing and he slapped her thigh hard enough to leave handmarks.

On July 20, Higham "lost his self-control because he didn't have any cannabis", and began to throw things at her.

Mr Tatlow said: “She left the house... he followed and he put her to the ground by sweeping her legs. He kicked her about the body."

Higham, of Clive Green in Shrewsbury, was arrested after that attack but denied any wrongdoing and was released on bail, the court heard.

On August 25 Higham strangled the woman by grabbing her around the throat and squeezing tight, all in the presence of her very young son.

To avoid upsetting her son, the victim tried to pretend she was "being silly" with the defendant, Mr Tatlow told the court.

On October 31, the couple had argued outside a hotel in Shifnal and the victim told Higham she did not want to be with him. He followed her to her car and after a scuffle she was shocked when she felt a pain in her leg and saw that he had bitten her on the knee, the court heard.

Another attack followed on November 6 after the heavily pregnant victim did not give Higham a lift in her car because she was feeling ill.

He choked her again, placing both hands around her throat and squeezing.

There was also an incident of criminal damage in which Higham threw dinner plates at the victim's car.

The final assault took place on November 15, in which Higham "kicked her in the stomach in a 'karate-style' kick" when she went to give him back some of his belongings, Mr Tatlow told the court.

The court heard that the babies have since been born.

When Higham was arrested, he was "belligerent and aggressive" to police who interviewed him and denied ever being violent towards the victim.

But a month later on December 17 he pleaded guilty to six charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, two of strangulation and one of criminal damage.

A statement made by the victim and read out to the court said that Higham had prevented the victim from seeing her friends and family and tried to make her completely reliant on him.

For Higham, Mr Rob Edwards said: "He is frankly disgusted with what has been described and what he has done.

"It was his first real relationship. He was very young when he got into the relationship, frankly he was not mature enough to enter into a relationship of such intensity and he was not mature enough to become a father. That is no excuse."

He handed down nine sentences for the various offences, all of which will run concurrently. The court also made a restraining order barring the defendant from contacting the victim.

DC Geoff Anslow of Shrewsbury CID said after the case: “This was a particularly nasty case of domestic violence which not only endangered the victim but also her unborn children.

“The victim has shown a lot of courage throughout the case. No-one should have to experience domestic abuse, and we will leave no stone unturned in bringing those responsible to justice.”