By Grâçia Ada Obi
A violent man punched and knocked out his ex-wife’s mother and fought with the mother’s partner after he breached a restraining order by turning up at their home. Both of his victims were left with facial injuries as a result of the assaults.
Brandon Wood, 30, turned up at the home of his ex-wife at her mother’s home in Brecon on July 19, 2022, and demanded to see his daughter. His ex-wife felt like she had “seen a ghost” after she saw the defendant stood in the kitchen with another man, describing herself as “petrified and intimidated.”
A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Thursday 7 November heard Wood’s ex-wife and her mother’s partner confronted the defendant and ushered him out of the house. His ex-wife asked what he was doing, and he responded “You are still my wife.”
There was a scuffle between Wood and the mother’s partner before the door was closed on him, but when his ex-wife came back to the kitchen, she saw the defendant and the other man waiting outside. She went out and asked Wood what he wanted, and the mother’s partner also came out of the house.
Prosecutor Christopher Evans said the mother’s partner tried to push Wood, who punched him. Neighbours could see the two men scuffling, as the defendant’s ex-wife attempted to break them up. Wood continued to swing punches at the mother’s partner in a car park, and the ex-wife’s mother came out of the house and attempted to split them up.
She screamed at Wood to leave them alone, and he responded by striking her to the face with a single punch which caused her to fall to the floor. The victim said she felt a “ring or key” during the punch and believed she lost consciousness briefly. She managed to get up and stagger back to the house, describing herself as feeling like she had “been hit by a truck.”
When she woke up the following morning, the ex-wife’s mother’s eye was closed, was bleeding and had a small cut above her eye. Her partner had a cut above and below his eye, a gash to his jaw and facial swelling.
Wood, of HMP Cardiff, was arrested and was found with MDMA wrapped in a lottery ticket in his wallet.
He claimed he was acting in self defence but he later pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, battery and breaching a restraining order.
The court heard he has 17 previous convictions including assault occasioning actual bodily harm, battery, and assaulting an emergency worker.
Sentencing, Recorder Celia Hughes described it as a “appalling incident” and a “prolonged assault,” sentencing Wood to 33 months imprisonment and made him subject to a new restraining order.
Dyfed-Powys Police were asked to provide a custody photo of the defendant but one was not available.