A notorious York man has been jailed for five years following a vicious attack – allegedly with a spanner – which left a woman with multiple facial fractures including a broken jaw, nose and eye socket.
Thomas Marshall, 31, bludgeoned the victim, ostensibly with some kind of weapon, during a frenzied attack at a property in York.
Prosecutor Kelly Clarke said that according to the named victim, she was struck “up to 10 times” with an object she believed to be a spanner.
She said that Marshall and the victim knew each other, had mutual friends and there had hitherto been “no bad blood” between them.
At the time of the attack, the victim was staying at a friend’s home in York where people would “come and go regularly to drink and take drugs”.
On 3 December last year, a group of people turned up at the property and an argument broke out in the evening about some drugs “going missing”.
Marshall later turned up, became embroiled in the argument and set upon the victim in the living room, striking her “several times around the head with what she said could have been a spanner”.
One of the guests stepped in to stop the attack and another woman mopped up a “significant amount” of blood which was seeping from the victim’s head.
As the woman glued one of the victim’s head wounds with Superglue, Marshall “apologised profusely”.
Police were called and the victim was taken to hospital for treatment to multiple fractures including a broken jaw, nose and eye socket. She also suffered “extensive” facial swelling and black eyes and there was haemorrhaging in the cheekbone.
Marshall was arrested the following day in High Ousegate where officers found a Stanley knife on him.
Ms Clarke said that police seized a spanner from the property where the attack occurred, but forensic tests found no proof that such a weapon had been used.
He was charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and carrying a blade. He admitted possessing a knife but denied the wounding offence and was due to face trial at the Crown Court on Thursday (21 May).
However, he pleaded guilty at the last minute and the Crown moved straight to sentence.
More than 50 offences
Ms Clarke said that Marshall, lately of Church Lane, Wheldrake, had 54 previous offences on his record including battery and the knifepoint robbery of a woman in 2020.
In a statement read out by the prosecution, the victim said that her facial swelling was so bad that she “looked deformed”.
She ultimately felt lucky because “the attack could have killed me”.
She had since made a fully recovery but was now wary of going out to see friends and suffered from disturbed sleep.
Defence barrister James Holding said that Marshall was a family man and father-of-two who worked as a labourer.
He said that Marshall and the victim were “usually pleasant to each other” but on the day in question the defendant was “in a bad mood and saw red mist”.
Judge Sean Morris told Marshall: “You are very, very lucky that one of those blows didn’t actually kill the victim because you would have been up for murder.”
Marshall was jailed for five years which was made up of four years and seven months for the wounding and five months consecutive for carrying a blade the day after the attack.
The judge made a 10-year restraining order banning Marshall from contacting the victim and going to her home.
