A career criminal who throttled his girlfriend in a “sustained and appalling” attack has been jailed for 30 months.
Del Banks’s terrified victim ran out of their Perth home and was seen by neighbours cowering in an alleyway, with a face drenched in blood.
Banks, 34, was found guilty of the assault following a trial at Perth Sheriff Court.
Jurors heard that he repeatedly punched his then-girlfriend and kicked her on the head before seizing and compressing her neck to her injury.
Banks also made threats of violence towards a child.
It happened at a property in Weavers Well Crescent, Perth, on September 10 last year.
Beyond ‘self defence’
Banks, who was once dubbed a “poster boy for soft justice,” claimed his partner hit him first.
He said he was increasingly frustrated by her drug habit.
He was jailed for 30 months and will be monitored by the local authority for a year once he’s released.
His sentence was backdated to September last year when he was remanded in custody, meaning he could be free by Christmas.
A non-harassment order was put in place, banning Banks from contacting his now-ex for three years.
Sheriff William Wood told him: “I have been reminded of the troubled upbringing that you have had, and the fact you have been in and out of trouble since your early teens.
“None of that condones what you did.”
The sheriff said: “You have an unenviable list of previous convictions ranging from theft, drugs and violence.
“And you have a particular propensity to violence when you have taken drugs.”
The sheriff noted Banks also had convictions for domestic abuse.
“This was an appalling offence,” he said.
“It may be there was some truth in what you say about the victim’s drug use.
“And it may be right that she attacked you first.
“But that makes no great difference to the outcome because this went far beyond what could properly termed as self defence.”
Victim fled house
Sheriff Wood said: “The account of the complainer leaving the house and scurrying into an alleyway where she was seen by neighbours cowering with a bloodied face – that is a very graphic image that the jury must have taken away with them.
“Clearly this was an appalling and sustained assault, regardless of what she may have done to you before that.
“You do need to have a further custodial sentence. You need to be reminded that this sort of behaviour is unacceptable.”
Gardener ‘Del’ Banks has spent most of his adult life in custody.
He was controversially taken by social workers to a Black Eyed Peas Concert in Manchester in 2004 in an effort to curb his offending.
Solicitor Linda Clark, defending, said: “He has shown insight and knows that his behaviour has to alter.”