Thug downed '24 cans and had crack cocaine' before brutally attacking girlfriend

A thug who ‘took crack cocaine and drank 24 cans’ before brutally attacking his girlfriend and three emergency workers has been jailed for 20 months.

Peter McLeod, 43, from Sunderland, was only out of prison a few months following an 11-year sentence for violence when he repeatedly punched, headbutted and kicked his partner until she feared she would die.

Footage from a body-worn police camera shows officers restraining him before he had to be subdued by CS Gas.

McLeod, whose girlfriend was initially a pen pal who wrote to him in prison, ‘terrified’ his partner when he arrived at her home on October 30 last year, prosecutor Alec Burns said.

Mr Burns told Newcastle Crown Court: ‘He began shouting at her, saying she had been cheating. He punched her in the face three times. She pleaded with him to stop.’

The brute punched a door on the way out of his victim’s bedroom, but then returned to ‘headbutt her in the face’, the prosecutor added.

He said: ‘He was shouting at her. He hit her just above her right eye with his forehead.

‘She curled up in on the bed to protect herself. He got on top of her, grabbing her by the throat. She thought for a while she might die.’

The beating continued with more hits, headbutts and kicks until McLeod eventually calmed down.

When police – called by the victim’s daughter who had been on the phone when the violence started – arrived, McLeod became ‘aggressive and threatening’ again.

As officers attempted to handcuff him, he lashed out at them, claiming he had a broken wrist.

When he was taken to the police station, the brute spat at a detention officer who tried to help him.

During a later questioning, he confessed he could not remember anything about the day, saying he had drank ’24 cans and had some crack cocaine’.

McLeod, of Hendon Burn Avenue, Hendon, admitted assault, and assaults on three emergency workers.

Judge Julie Clemitson sentenced him to 20 months behind bars at Newcastle Crown Court.

He was on a suspended sentence for assault on an emergency worker at the time of the incident, imposed just a month before.

The judge said the victim had been left ‘battered’ with bruising and swelling to her face and torso after the savage attack.

She added: ‘She was in her own home and with a man she should have been entitled to trust would treat her properly and not cause injury to her.’

The court heard McLeod had a traumatic childhood and had received no real intervention from the authorities to deal with his problems.

Rachel Hedworth, defending, said the victim wants McLeod to have a chance to ‘get help’ as he is ‘crying out for’ it.

Miss Hedworth said: ‘He is extremely sorry, he is ashamed.’

At the end of the hearing, McLeod apologised to his partner, the emergency workers involved and everyone else involved the case, saying they ‘shouldn’t have to put up with that’.

He added: ‘I should have done more to deal with my past, I have just got to keep on trying and that’s what I am going to get on doing.’