Man spat in partner's face after Facebook row

Defendant apologises after online messages led to argument

A MAN spat full in the face of his partner after discovering online messages at their Eastbury home.

Victim Karyn Ballard was then injured when Josh Llewellyn Copas knocked a picture frame from the wall, causing it to strike her head.

The drama happened at the home they shared in Newbury Road, Reading magistrates heard on Thursday, July 21.

Helen Waite, prosecuting, said: “There had been an argument about Facebook messages, which I won’t go into. But they clearly upset Mr Copas.

“This had been boiling under for a few days until, on that morning, he told her to go and look at Facebook and look at what her comments had started.

“The thread had apprently taken on a life of its own.”

She added: “He walked into the hallway and spat directly into her face, saliva striking her cheek and forehead.

“He said: ‘That’s what I think of you.’

“He then followed her into the bedroom and she shouted at him to get out of the house.

“He grabbed a picture frame and it hit the side of her head, causing injuries.

“The pain was instant and she was very shocked.

“She started screaming and could feel a lump forming on her head.”

Ms Waite said, however, that the Crown accepted Mr Copas may not have intended to hit her with the frame but, rather, had been reckless.

She said Ms Ballard acknowledged that 24-year-old Mr Copas was good with her two children from a previous relationship and that she suffered from a condition which made it difficult for her to control her emotions.

Mr Copas, a self-employed landscape gardener who currently lives at Marlborough Gardens, Farringdon, Oxfordshire, admitted assaulting Ms Ballard by beating her on June 22.

He has no previous convictions.

Representing himself, Mr Copas told the court that, since the assault, he had been forbidden by bail conditions from contacting Ms Ballard and added: “It’s hard not being with her and the kids.

“I’m sorry for what happened.

“I want to try to sort things out and try to get back to how we were before – two years is a long time to throw away.

“I want to apologise to her.”

After retiring to confer, magistrates said they would not order Mr Copas to pay compensation to Ms Ballard because, if they were to reconcile, that could become a cause of friction between them.

Instead they fined Mr Copas £40 and ordered him to pay £40 costs plus a statutory surcharge of £30.