Sheffield pair escape jail for targeting their ex-partners after they formed new relationship together

Sheffield Crown Court heard on September 24 how Ryan Smith, aged 49, of Gillott Road, Birley Carr, Sheffield, and Nicola Deakin, 52, formerly of Wordsworth Avenue, Parson Cross, Sheffield, both harboured ill-feeling towards their ex-partners who then coincidentally became a couple.

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Zaiban Alam, prosecuting, said when the complainants got together as a couple, in a “twist of fate” their ex-partners Smith and Deakin got together and there was animosity towards the complainants.

Ms Alam said a VW car belonging to the male complainant was damaged on several occasions by Deakin and outdoor fairylights were also damaged by Deakin between April 4 and 19, 2020.

The car suffered three slashed tyres between April 3 and 4, on April 9 car mirrors were damaged and on April 18 the car was spray-painted with graffiti with offensive terms and an image of male genitalia.

Fairylights attached to the complainants’ ground floor flat were also damaged during the same evening, according to Ms Alam, and when the male complainant went outside he was assaulted by Smith.

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Ms Alam said: “He was attacked by Ryan Smith. CCTV shows him fall to the floor. It shows him being struck heavily and he falls to the floor and it shows a push to the face with an open palm.”

The court heard the complainant suffered a detached retina and he needed surgery to repair the eye injury.

Deakin pleaded guilty to four counts of causing damage and Smith pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Chris Aspinall, defending, said he had no explanation behind Smith’s behaviour because it is something that has never been explained.

He said Smith is unemployed and has an on-going medical condition which the court heard relates to a serious injury from 1987.

Michael Cane-Soothill, defending, said Deakin had not been thinking straight and what she should have done was stop drinking, take her medication and ignore any perceived slights from her previous relationship.

Mr Soothill added the defendants were married three weeks ago but Judge Jeremy Richardson QC expressed astonishment at learning that Smith’s father had bought them a weekend away when they could easily both have been going to prison, and he added they would have to “forgo that particular wedding present”.

Sentencing the pair, Judge Richardson QC told the defendants: “Each of you swapped partners. It appears that you did not react to that situation, strangely, at all well and you commenced in April, last year, a campaign against your respective, erstwhile partners.

“It was a disastrous state of affairs. Both of you as a result of this campaign indulged in criminal acts for which you now fall to be sentenced.”

Judge Richardson sentenced Smith to 18 months of custody suspended for two years with a rehabilitation requirement and a three-month curfew.

Deakin was sentenced to a 12 month community order with a rehabilitation requirement, a three month curfew and a requirement to undertake an alcohol abstinence monitoring programme.

Both defendants were also given a five-year restraining order to stay away from their ex-partners.