A Coventry man who took part in what was said to have been a reprisal attack on a woman whose daughter had allegedly stabbed his step-daughter has been jailed.
Darren McKinley had denied assaulting the woman causing her actual bodily harm, but was found guilty by Coventry magistrates who committed him to the crown court for sentencing.
And at Warwick Crown Court, McKinley (44) of Attoxhall Road, Wyken, Coventry, was jailed for 15 months.
Prosecutor Olivia Beesley said that in March McKinley and another man and a woman turned up outside the woman’s home in Triumph Close, Coventry.
The other two grabbed her and pulled her away from her home, and she was headbutted by the woman before McKinley stepped forward, and all three grabbed her and forced her to the ground.
The victim was then hit with ‘caveman-style blows’ and punched and slapped by the other woman and the man before they and McKinley returned to a black VW Golf and drove away.
And Miss Beesley suggested it had been ‘a reprisal’ after the victim’s daughter had stabbed McKinley’s step-daughter earlier in the week.
But Laura Culley, defending, said: “This was not a charge led by Mr McKinley.”
She said the attack had been led by the other man, who had a dispute with the victim, and it was coincidence that there had been an incident between the victim’s daughter and McKinley’s step-daughter.
Miss Culley conceded McKinley, who was on licence from a prison sentence at the time, had a poor record, but it was mainly for dishonesty, with just one conviction for violence in 1994.
She added that he ‘has to accept the verdict of the lower court,’ but that he had not landed any of the blows during the assault.
Judge Anthony Potter told McKinley: “Whatever your initial intentions when you went there, against the background of her daughter having been accused of assaulting your step-daughter, it became immediately apparent what [the other woman’s] intentions were because she headbutted her.
“Your reaction to that was to step forward to align yourself with the attack and put her to the floor so she could be attacked further by the other two, and she was subjected to punches and slaps by both of them.
“As a result of this she was left with a bleeding mouth and a cut to her lip and bruising.
“It was a sustained assault, and it is aggravated by the fact that it took place outside her own home.”Hi
