Telford man, 23, punched pregnant neighbour in row
A 23-year old Telford man punched a pregnant neighbour in the face during a row, leaving her with an injury to her cheek, a court heard.
At of Shrewsbury Crown Court yesterday Jake Birch admitted a charge of assaulting Caroline Wade by beating in September last year.
The sentencing hearing was heard via a video link from prison where Birch is serving a three-year sentence for a burglary committed on the same day as the assault.
Judge Robin Onions said that Birch had a record of violence and sentenced him to three months in prison, to run concurrently with his present sentence.
Birch, of Marlborough Drive, Newdale, denied a charge of being in possession of a knife and Judge Onions ordered that this charge should lie on the file.
Mr Philip Beardwell, prosecuting, said that Birch had long-standing issues with Miss Wade, a neighbour at his former home in Madeley.
The victim believed Birch had made complaints about her to the local authority and she confronted him in Meadowlea on September 15.
Mr Beardwell said that although Miss Wade had suggested Birch was trying to get her evicted it was an unprovoked attack in which he pushed her and punched her once in the face.
Miss Debra White, for Birch, said her client accepted there had been an ongoing dispute, but did not accept all that was said, but had taken a pragmatic approach by pleading guilty.
