A BRADFORD man with a “shocking” criminal record has been jailed for attacking a woman and threatening to stab her with two knives.
Bradford Crown Court heard that Ryan Mitchell, of Hennymoor House, Cheapside, had been drinking when he assaulted the woman in his flat on January 18 this year.
They had been in a relationship but he reacted violently when she ended it after a row.
Prosecutor Emily Thorbjornsen told the court that Mitchell, who had been drinking, became irate, threatened that he would kill the woman if she got into a relationship with someone else, and tried to kick her before picking up two knives.
One was a small potato peeler but the other was a 12-inch-long kitchen knife.
Miss Thorbjornsen said: “Whilst standing one metre away [from the woman] he waved both knives around in her direction and made gestures that he wanted to stab her.”
The woman’s teenage daughter then intervened by taking the knives from him but Mitchell continued his assault by hitting the woman forcefully in the face with a plastic drinks bottle and then throwing a dinner plate, which missed.
Mitchell hit her with the bottle again and then grabbed the woman’s scarf as she tried to leave and pulled her back into the flat as the daughter tried to pull her out.
He also put his hands around her neck.
Three days later Mitchell was filmed on CCTV outside another property with two other men, one of whom handed him a knife which he briefly secreted in his waistband before handing it back.
The police then arrived and Mitchell was arrested. A knife was seized from another man at the scene.
When interviewed Mitchell answered “no comment” to all questions. He later pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, threatening a person with a bladed article, and having a bladed article in a public place.
The court heard that he had a lengthy criminal record with 42 convictions for 77 offences including battery, assault, grievous bodily harm, affray, assault on emergency workers, and four convictions for having a bladed article in a public place.
Mitigating, John Bottomley said Mitchell, who appeared via video link from HMP Leeds, had endured “a really unpleasant upbringing”.
He said Mitchell had also been diagnosed with schizophrenia and had changed his medication at the time of the incident. He turned to alcohol as a “coping mechanism” when his mental health was bad.
He said Mitchell did not seek to excuse or minimise what he had done and that he accepted his behaviour had been unacceptable.
In relation to accepting the knife, he said Mitchell was in possession of it for ten seconds – that he was confiscating it, changed his mind and then gave it back.
Sentencing Mitchell to 18 months in prison for assault with a further six months for possession of the knife in public to be served concurrently, His Honour Judge Ahmed Nadim said it would be wrong to suspend the sentence bearing in mind his overall character.
He added: “You are only 32 years of age … but you have already a shocking record.
“Every type of sentencing option has been invoked in relation to you in an effort to dissuade you from your offending behaviour.
“True it is that you have challenges in life and that there are issues that you need to address.
“You have to develop what is needed – and what is needed is courage – to move away from the kind of lifestyle that you have adopted.”
He said Mitchell would serve nine months in custody and would then be released on licence.
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