A notorious York man has been jailed for nearly four years for a shocking series of offences including strangling his ex-partner, pouring liquid down her throat and kicking her in the groin.
Zac Weathers, 30, strangled the woman on two occasions and went on to commit further offences while on bail including speeding from police in a high-speed car chase through York housing estates.
Prosecutor Brooke Morrison said that in the first strangulation offence at the victim’s home in Heworth on Boxing Day 2023, she was pinned to the floor, strangled with both hands, slapped and punched in the face, kicked in the groin and had juice poured juice down her throat “for about seven seconds”.
She was forced to flee from her own house.
Ms Morrison said that Weathers, who had a long criminal record, was arrested and bailed for those offences but returned to her address months later and assaulted her again.
Then, while still on bail, he went back to the victim’s house in April 2024, pushed her against a wall and strangled her again.
Crashed into road signs
Weathers was still on bail when he drove past police in a VW Polo on the morning of 20 February last year.
Ms Morrison said that officers’ attention was drawn to the Volkswagen because the driver had covered his face on passing their vehicle.
They followed the Volkswagen down Wigginton Road before Weathers hit the accelerator and sped away.
“He overtook several vehicles into the path of oncoming traffic on a residential road,” said Ms Morrison.
The Volkswagen then mounted a kerb and drove along a pavement onto a grassy area through residential estates.
Weathers then drove along a cycle path before re-emerging on the road from the wrong side of a roundabout past a queue of stationary traffic. The Volkswagen crashed into road signs after mounting another kerb and then stopped.
Weathers got out of the vehicle and made a run for it, but following a brief foot chase he was arrested by one of the pursuing officers.
Ms Morrison said that Weathers had driven at speeds of up to 59mph through residential areas and at 74mph through junctions and around roundabouts in dense traffic.
Large knife
Seven months after the police chase, and while still on bail, Weathers went back to his ex-partner’s address at about 4am on 18 September when the woman was in bed.
She was woken by noises coming from her back garden where Weathers, whose bail conditions included a prohibition on contacting the woman, was “shouting that he was going to smash her window and kill himself” while carrying a large knife.
The victim, who stayed in bed and didn’t engage with him, looked at her phone and saw that she had 30 missed calls from an unknown number.
Moments later, a lump of concrete, thrown by Weathers from the back garden, came hurtling through her bedroom window which was smashed to pieces. Her bedroom was “covered in broken glass”.
Weathers finally walked off, the woman called police and officers went looking for him. They found Weathers in Dodsworth Avenue, Heworth, and gave chase on foot.
Suddenly, Weathers stopped, turned round to face the officers and “showed them he had in his hand a large knife with a black handle”.
He appeared to stab himself in the stomach with the blade, but it transpired that he was only pretending. However, officers were forced to Taser him as a precaution. He was duly arrested and officers found no stab injuries to his stomach.
‘Extremely remorseful’
Weathers had more than 30 offences on his record including five previous dangerous-driving offences.
He also had a previous conviction for carrying a knife, threatening behaviour and multiple convictions for driving while disqualified.
Ms Morrison said that, despite the savagery of the first attack in particular, his ex-partner was not seek a restraining order against Weathers.
He was ultimately charged with two counts of strangulation, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, common assault, damaging property, possessing a bladed article and dangerous driving.
He admitted all the offences except dangerous driving of which he was convicted following a trial at the lower court.
He appeared for sentence yesterday (Tuesday) after being remanded in custody in October last year.
Weathers’ defence barrister said he was “extremely remorseful” for his actions and that his ex-partner, who is a mother, “wanted to reconcile the relationship at some stage”.
She said that Weathers, who is a father, had been “struggling with mental health and drugs” at the time and hadn’t been taking his anti-depressant medication.
Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, said that Weathers had defied his bail time and time again during a series of egregious offences. “It’s bad stuff, serious,” said Mr Morris.
“You turned up at this woman’s house… armed with a lethal weapon.”
He dismissed Weathers’ threats to take his own life as “pathetic”, adding: “It’s a classic line of a woman beater.”
Weathers was jailed for three years and nine months which was made up of consecutive sentences for two counts of strangulation, ABH, dangerous driving and carrying a blade.
He received a 33-month driving ban, which effectively means he will be off the roads for 12 months upon his release from prison halfway through his sentence.
