By Alastair Ulke | Northampton Chronicle |
A Northampton ‘brute’ (originally from Zimbabwe) who savagely beat his girlfriend in a drunken rage on New Year’s Day will be deported after his prison sentence.
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Darlent Zirebwa, of Kingsley, likely broke his partner’s ribs in the attack after a night out in the first few hours of 2020 – but she was too afraid of him to even take herself to hospital for treatment for months after.
Even after her daughter convinced to her leave and report it to the police, the 30-year-old denied the brutal attack and put his victim through a three-week long trial.
But at his sentencing Northampton Crown Court, the judge made clear she knew it was not a one-off and scolded him as a violent bully.
“This was a brutal and sustained assault that you continued even after she told you she was hurt,” said Her Honour Judge Adrienne Lucking.
“When she described you in court as a brute and a bully, she was right.
“I’m sure you were violent to her during the course of the relationship.”
The court heard how Zirebwa was also jailed for two years in 2016 for a drunken assault against the same woman, where he beat her so badly she was hospitalized for a suspected bleed on the brain.
Judge Lucking said: “You have a clear pattern of assaulting her and trying to win her back by saying things like you love her. You are emotionally manipulative.”
A victim impact statement from the woman, read out by prosecutor Stephen Donnelly, read: “I will forever be looking over my shoulder fearing that Zirebwa is coming for me.”
But the court also heard that the 30-year-old has been handed a deportation order for reasons not read out to the judge.
Zirebwa is a British national. The country he will be deported to was not detailed in court.
He was sentenced to 24 months in prison. Because of the seven months he has already spent in custody and how prisoners in England typically serve half their sentence on licence, it is likely he will be released in five months.
