A man who twice strangled his mother and later assaulted a partner has been jailed for 33 months. James Arundel, 23, of no fixed abode, appeared at Swansea Crown Court for sentencing after pleading guilty to two counts of strangulation, criminal damage, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and theft.
The court heard that the strangulation offences occurred in January this year while Arundel was staying at his mother's address. The mother described how her son was routinely verbally abusive to her, and the two strangulations happened on occasions when she asked him to leave because of his behaviour.
Attack on mother
On both occasions, Arundel grabbed his mother by the throat and squeezed until she struggled to breathe. On the first occasion, the pair fell down a flight of steps as he throttled her. On the second, the victim managed to get Arundel out of the house and had to sit with her back to the front door to bar his return as he kicked the door in.
The assaults were reported to police, and Arundel was arrested on January 26. In his subsequent interview, he gave a prepared statement in which he claimed his mother had been the one who grabbed him by the neck.
Taxi assault
While on bail, on September 23, Arundel attacked a woman he had been in a brief six-week relationship with. The pair were staying at the Ibis hotel in Swansea and went into the city centre, where a row erupted over a bank card.
In a taxi back to the SA1 hotel, Arundel began screaming at the woman and making unpleasant comments about her terminally-ill father before punching her in the face a number of times. The taxi stopped, and Arundel made off before the cabbie drove the injured woman to Swansea Central police station. The woman later went to Morriston Hospital, where medics treated a wound above her right eye.
Arundel was located and arrested three days later. In his interview, he gave a prepared statement claiming his partner had attacked him and he had been acting in self-defence.
Victim impact
In a statement read to the court by the prosecution barrister, Arundel's mother said she had been left suffering from panic attacks and anxiety levels that had "gone through the roof." She said no words could explain the fear her son had caused her and that her mental and physical health would never be the same. She added: "No mother should be afraid of her son."
The court heard that Arundel had previously pleaded guilty to the offences on the day he had been due to stand trial. He has two previous convictions, the last being for shoplifting in October this year.
Megan Williams, for Arundel, said her client had experienced an upbringing "blighted by adverse childhood experiences" and had been removed from his mother's care at an early age, being brought up by a grandparent before entering the care system at 14. She said he began using cannabis and amphetamine in his early teens, which developed into cocaine and alcohol use by 16 and then into a crack and heroin addiction by 18.
The barrister said her client was effectively homeless and living in a tent near Swansea Civic Centre and recognised he was living a chaotic lifestyle. She said his substance misuse meant he had little recollection of the events, but he did not seek to challenge the prosecution's version of events. She said Arundel was drug-free in prison and that "for a first time in a long time" his thinking was no longer clouded by "mind fog."
Sentencing
Judge Paul Thomas KC said Arundel's treatment of his mother had been "quite simply appalling." He told the defendant it must have been a terrifying experience for the victim to be throttled by him "not knowing how far you would go in temper."
The judge noted there were a "very significant number" of incidents on the log where police had been contacted by Arundel's mother, by partners, and by staff and fellow residents at various hotels about his behaviour, though none had resulted in charges and convictions. He said the author of the pre-sentence report had concluded that Arundel poses a continuing risk to the public which cannot be managed in the community, a conclusion with which he agreed.
With discounts for his guilty pleas, Arundel was sentenced to 33 months in prison. He will serve one-third of the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community. He was also made subject to restraining orders banning him from contacting his mother and the victim of the taxi assault for the next five years.
