Owen Dodd, 23, has been jailed for 680 days after attacking his girlfriend on the first night of a Tenerife holiday, biting her in a nightclub and then kicking her in the head as they walked back to their hotel.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that Dodd, from Morris Avenue in Warrington, subjected Letitia Horne to a barrage of punches and kicks after she had confided to her mother that she "had a bad feeling" about the trip. The attack only stopped when a group of men intervened, and the next morning Dodd broke down in tears when he saw the black eyes, cuts and bruises on her face.
Relationship turned abusive
The couple began a relationship in December 2024 after Dodd, who was on holiday in Egypt, phoned Horne and asked her to be his girlfriend. When he returned, he "brought his suitcase to her flat and moved in without any prior discussion," prosecutor Tom Challinor said.
The relationship soon became strained after Dodd lost his job and made little effort to find another, spending most of his time playing computer games. In February 2025, the pair went on holiday to Mexico with his parents, where they "drank heavily" and had "several arguments and incidents."
After returning, Dodd's grandfather warned him to "stop drinking and mistreating people," but Dodd borrowed money from him to join relatives on a "drinking holiday" to Tenerife. Horne, 22, went with him, but beforehand told her mum she "had a bad feeling about the trip, given how things had gone in Mexico."
Attack on first night
On their first day, they visited several pubs and bars, consuming alcohol, cocaine and ecstasy. In a nightclub, Dodd bit Horne on the cheek "without warning." When a cousin confronted him, he smashed a bottle and threatened to stab family members, only putting it down when Horne agreed to return to the hotel with him.
On the way back, Dodd screamed in her face and punched her two or three times, sending her to the ground where she hit her head on the kerb. He then kicked her in the head two or three times as she tried to get up. The attack only stopped when bystanders intervened, and Horne "begged them to stop." Back at the hotel, he shoved her into a mirror, shattering it.
The next morning, Dodd cried after "sobering up and seeing what he had done," and bought her sunglasses to hide her black eyes. Horne suffered blurred vision, facial bruising, a split lip and a lump on her head. Dodd told her that her "crying made him angry when he was drunk." Horne later told relatives on a FaceTime call that she had been robbed.
Further incident and sentencing
After returning to the UK, Dodd promised to get a job and seek help, but continued drinking and using drugs. On April 3, during a visit to his grandparents, his "temper exploded" again. In the car, he tried to grab the steering wheel and then smashed the windscreen with his fist when Horne stopped the car. She drove away, marking their last face-to-face contact.
Dodd then bombarded her with calls and messages, warning she "might as well contact the police, otherwise he'd stalk her and never leave her alone." Horne reported him after encouragement from both sets of parents. She took five months off work after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and said she started losing her hair and weight due to stress.
Dodd pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and criminal damage. Passing sentence, Recorder Tania Griffiths KC described him as a "controlling bully," adding: "Sometimes, the only language that a bully understands is one which has an immediate impact." She sentenced him to 680 days in custody and issued an indefinite restraining order.
