Hartlepool man arrested on holiday flight after beating woman in street

Raging Richard Ryan, 43, from Hartlepool, had accused her of stealing money and drugs from him and she had just come out of the bath when he dragged her from her home by her hair.

There was background laughter as he kicked and punched his victim before stamping on her head, Teesside Crown Court was told

She was later shown the footage sent to her friend by Ryan, who had a conviction for slashing a man’s face with a knife, and her windows were smashed a short time later.

Ryan was arrested on a plane as he fled on a holiday flight to the sun, said prosecutor Jenny Haigh, who showed the video in court.

Judge Christopher Smith said: “He passed the video on to her friend to show her being degraded.”

Soon after the attack on May 25, the windows in her home were smashed although Ryan could not be blamed, said Miss Haigh

Ryan, who served six years for conspiracy to supply cocaine and amphetamines, accused her or friends of stealing drugs and money from him when he visited her house on an earlier occasion.

She told police in a victim impact statement that she used to do kickboxing in her 20s but she had never suffered such pain from her injuries.

She said that she feared reprisals from Ryan.

The judge said that the woman turned up at the court building earlier this week to say that she did not want a restraining order against Ryan.

He fixed a separate hearing for August 13 to determine whether one should be imposed and he asked for her to be interviewed by a domestic violence counsellor.

Judge Smith told Ryan, who appeared over a videolink from Durham Prison: ”Somebody filmed it, somehow you got the footage and I believe you engaged in a deliberate attempt to degrade your victim by sending it to somebody that she knew.”

Ryan, of Wynyard Road, Hartlepool, was jailed for three years after he pleaded guilty to actual bodily harm assault.