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Jail for Zim man who battered ex-girlfriend
By
Staff Reporter
DINGANI Mlotshwa,
the crazed Zimbabwean thug who battered his ex-girlfriend with a phone
in Bolton, England, before leading police on an 18-month man hunt was
starting a six-and-half-year jail term Friday.
Mlotshwa, 32, was only caught after police launched a nationwide media appeal.
A judge sentenced him to six-and-a-half years in prison at Bolton Crown Court after he pleaded guilty to a charge of grievous bodily harm.
Judge Elliott Knopf stold him: "You perpetrated a brutal, sustained and savage attack on a defenceless woman in her own home, which has resulted in lifelong harm to her.
"She will live with the consequences of what you did for the rest of her life.
"You showed her no mercy at all. She had 31 stitches. She has suffered constant pain because of the damage to her left eye socket. That this was an appalling act of violence is not in doubt."
The court heard that Mlotshwa repeatedly punched and kicked his 25-year-old former partner during a row over cash. He attacked her with a telephone receiver and then fled, leaving her lying in a pool of blood.
Mlotshwa went on the run for 18 months but was caught after detectives made a plea for help on the BBC's Crimewatch programme.
He was arrested in January in Kent by Bolton detectives. He had assumed a fake identity and was doing casual work.
The victim, who lives in Bolton, but has not been named, allowed Mlotshwa to move into her home after meeting him at a party in Leeds in December, 2004.
Mlotshwa, a failed asylum seeker, worked in Hull and lived with the victim at the weekends. But he started to become increasingly jealous and abusive towards her.
The couple had agreed to split up and on Saturday, April 16, 2005, when a row escalated, Mlotshwa wrongly accused her of cheating on him and demanded the victim give back cash he had been paying her for his keep.
The victim, originally from South Africa, was training to be a nurse at the University of Central Lancashire. She was so scared she called 999. It was then that Mlotshwa flew into a rage.
He grabbed the phone and repeatedly hit her in the eye. He then punched and kicked her repeatedly before leaving. The victim was taken to hospital and needed stitches to her face.
She also required reconstructive surgery and is still having operations, which have partially restored the sight in her injured eye.
In a statement read to the court, she said: "This assault has been a life-changing event. I have been very distressed about what happened to me and I am very fearful. I see the scars every day and it reminds me of the attack."
A medical statement read to the court said it is likely that she will always have double vision in the left eye.
Andrew Costello, defending, said Mlotshwa was remorseful about what he had done and that he admitted the offence as soon as he was arrested.
He said he had been giving the victim regular instalments of cash by direct debit and needed the money back to send home to his 10-year-old daughter in Zimbabwe.
Detective Sergeant Liz Hopkinson, of Bolton CID, said: "This was an horrific attack and we can only hope the sentence will provide a small shred of comfort to the victim, whose life has been devastated by it."
Mlotshwa will be
assessed on his release by the Department of Immigration and is likely
to be deported back to Zimbabwe.
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