Woman

Aug 27, 2023

Kevin Shields

A woman-beating thug who was recorded kicking and punching his defenceless partner has been jailed.

Antrim Crown Court was told Kevin Shields subjected his victim to a “brutal level of violence” during the unprovoked attack, which was caught on a doorbell camera.

Judge Alistair Devlin handed the 27-year-old a four-year sentence, half of which will be spent in jail and the remainder on licence.

Shields, of no fixed abode, admitted attempting to cause grievous bodily harm with intent on June 1 last year in an attack aggravated by domestic abuse.

He also entered a guilty plea to causing criminal damage to the window of a PSNI Land Rover on the same date.

The court was told how police had been called to the Clon Dara area of Londonderry after witnesses reported seeing a woman being assaulted.

When officers spoke with the “visibly distressed and injured” victim, she said Shields had punched her to the ground.

He then continued kicking her in the head, also “repeatedly punching her to the head and face”.

With Shields standing nearby, officers attempted to speak to him, but he threw a rock at their unmarked Land Rover that cracked one of the windows.

He then challenged the officers to a fight, after which he was subdued with CS spray and handcuffed.

Shields was so aggressive in custody that the police chose not to interview him and instead just charge him.

While the victim refused to make a statement, Judge Devlin told the court PSNI inquiries had obtained good-quality footage of the attack, both visual and audio, from a nearby doorbell camera.

That footage, said the judge, showed Shields committing a “truly shocking, completely unprovoked, brutal and sustained physical attack upon your helpless female victim, who was no physical match for you and offered you no resistance at any stage”.

The recording of the assault shows him landing “three forceful and violent” punches to the woman’s head as she sits on the ground.

After a witness told him the incident was being recorded, he kicked his partner in the head and face and punched her another six or seven times “with significant force”.

The judge said the victim made no attempt to stop Shields and only tried to protect herself.

He added: “It’s perfectly clear that most of the blows are delivered at a time when the victim has rolled backwards from a sitting position to the flat of her back and is attempting to protect her head and face [while] you were standing over her.”

At the time of the attack, the defendant was on bail for a previous assault on the same woman.

While he had been ordered to stay away from her as part of his bail conditions, they had been drinking and taking drugs together in the 24 hours before the latest incident.

Imposing the four-year sentence, Judge Devlin told Shields that had he not admitted the offences, he would have been jailed for six years.

He added: “The Court of Appeal has recently reviewed such cases and stated that… perpetrators of sustained domestic violence can expect lengthy custodial sentences.

“This behaviour is not normal and should not be tolerated.”

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