A ‘bad tempered bully’ who thrashed his girlfriend’s legs and back with a metal vacuum cleaner hose has been jailed.
Logan Crook attacked the 19-year-old twice in the space of a week, breaking her phone and locking her in his flat in Teignmouth during the first assault and leaving her with multiple bruises all over her body in the second.
A Judge at Exeter Crown Court said he had tried to count all the bruises in the photographs of the victim and found 14 on her left leg, 11 on her right leg and too many on her back and torso to calculate. She also had extensive cuts and bruises to her face.
Crook was high on the street drug Xanax when he carried out the attacks which both started with him losing his temper because she had asked him to give her lifts.
He punched her in the face and kicked her in the back during the first assault and dragged her around his flat by her hair, punched, kicked, and heat her with the metal hose during the second, which only ended because worried neighbours called the police.
Crook grabbed the teenager’s iPhone when she tried to use it to call for help and snapped it in half. He then locked her in, forcing her to use his smart television to message her sister after he had gone to sleep. She eventually climbed out of a window to escape in the early hours of the morning.
He was said to suffer from ADHD and a psychological condition called Oppositional Defiance Disorder and his relationship with the victim deteriorated after be was sent to jail for 15 months in January 2023 for ramming three cars during a police chase at Clyst St Mary, East Devon. The relationship was said to have become toxic and volatile after his release.
Crook, aged 25, of Northumberland Place, Teignmouth, admitted two offences of assault causing actual bodily harm, criminal damage, and driving while disqualified and was jailed for two years and four months by Judge James Adkins.
He told him: “You are capable of making rational choices and understand the consequences of your actions. The reason you committed this offence is because you are a bad-tempered aggressive bully towards young women.”
Mr Tom Bradnock, prosecuting, said the couple had been in a relationship since November 2022 which had become volatile and toxic by the time these offences were committed last month.
The first attack happened on July 10 when Crook attacked his partner at his flat after an argument. He pulled her hair, punched her in the middle of her face and kicked her in the back as she lay curled up on the floor. She tried to ring her sister to get help but he grabbed her iPhone 12 and snapped it in half, breaking it permanently.
He then locked her in but after he went to bed she managed to log on to Instagram on his smart television and send a message to her sister which read ‘He won’t let me go, my phone is broke, I am scared’. She escaped by climbing out of a window at 5.30 am while he was still asleep.
She went to his flat again on July 16 and suffered a series of attacks during which he dragged her around by her hair from room to room while kicking and punching her and beat her with the metal tube from a vacuum cleaner. She said it was the worst pain she had ever experienced.
He left the flat with her because he was worried about police attending and was arrested in Queen Street, Dawlish, when he was driving while disqualified.
Mr William Parkhill, defending, said Crook had been abusing Xanax at the time but has got clean since his arrest and now realises what he did was wrong and is remorseful. He has no intention of resuming he relationship when he is released. He is immature for his aged has complex psychological problems including ADHD and autism.
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