Sheffield man jailed for '˜depraved' urine attack on ex-girlfriend

Anzil Palmer, aged 23 and of Canada Street, Pitsmoor, carried out the assault on his ex at a house in Chapeltown after repeatedly breaching a restraining order banning him from any contact with her.

He was jailed for eight months at Sheffield Crown Court for breaching his restraining order.

Palmer was given the order in September 2015 in relation to his ex-girlfriend after being convicted of harassment.

He breached the order in October, December, January and February before the attack on April 23 this year.

Judge Graham Robinson said Palmer had attacked his victim ‘in a depraved manner by putting your hand in her mouth and wiping it over her face telling her it was contaminated with urine’.

He said Palmer had then pushed the woman and grabbed her neck.

The following day he sent the woman further text messages and made telephone calls to her, being caught by the police at her property.

Zaiban Alam, defending Palmer, said her client has been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder since being badly attacked in November in an incident which she said has had an effect on his behaviour.

She said the woman he had been in a relationship with had initially continued contact with him following the imposition of the restraining order and the pair had exchanged Christmas presents.

She said: “This relationship has been the defendant’s first real relationship. He has struggled with what it means to be in a grown-up relationship.

“The relationship and the history of breaches has been complicated by the fact she was also young and perhaps a little immature. She indicated she wanted the relationship to end but contacted the defendant after the restraining order.”

“There has been to-ing and fro-ing as far as the relationship is concerned after the imposition of the restraining order. He did not have the good sense to walk away.”

Ms Alam said Palmer had been badly injured in a ‘serious and vicious assault’ by a group of individuals who had been ‘hassling’ his ex-girlfriend in November.

His jaw and cheekbones were fractured in the attack, which she said has had a ‘huge effect’ on her client.

She said Palmer had also had family difficulties when he was growing up.

She said he ‘loathes what he did’ and is ‘desperately ashamed’.

Judge Robinson said Palmer’s personal difficulties made it ‘all the more difficult to comprehend why you should subject somebody who you once loved to the catalogue of unwelcome attention to which you subjected her’.

He said: “It was a course of conduct which must be dealt with by an immediate custodial sentence.”