Face of the brute who 'stripped Sheffield woman naked and inflicted 45 injuries'

Terry Larkin, aged 56, of Hardwick Lane, Aston, drove the woman home after she had been out drinking with friends and family in the city in November last year, Sheffield Crown Court was told today, Friday, December 13.Opening the case on Monday, Prosecutor Ian West said the complainant had gone to a pub on November 11 last year to spend time with her family and friends, having ‘quite a lot to drink.’After he was called to take her home, Larkin had initially been ‘nice’ but then verbally abused her and slapped her, said Mr West.Larkin then forced her to strip naked and inflicted 45 separate injuries to her body, including bruising to her neck where he had tried to strangle her, bruising to her breasts where he had repeatedly squeezed them, bruising to her arms, cigarette burns and carpet burns where he had dragged her across the floor, the court heard.Larkin had initially claimed that the woman had attacked him after he refused to have sex with her, but evidence given by Home Office Pathologist Dr Stuart Hamilton said the injuries matched the victim’s description of the assault.It was also alleged that Larkin had forced the woman upstairs and sexually assaulted her. The court also heard that Larkin had initially prevented the woman from leaving by blocking off doorways, but later allowed her to call a relative.Larkin had denied the charges but was unanimously found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, following a trial. However, jurors found him not guilty of the sexual assault.Sentencing Larkin to three years in prison, Judge Michael Slater described the incident as ‘one of the worst cases of assault occasioning actual bodily harm I have ever seen’.He also told the court that a five-year-old child had been upstairs asleep throughout the woman’s ordeal, and she was discovered shortly afterwards in a ‘distressed state’ by her 16-year-old daughter.