A mother had her spine broken in four places, and was left with six cracked teeth and a hole in her retina after being attacked by her jealous ex-boyfriend because she went on a night out.
Lindsey Pringle, 35, who suffers from osteoporosis meaning she has weak bones, had to spend 12 days in hospital after the savage beating by Curtis Storey, 21, in August last year.
Miss Pringle told how she had broken up with Storey the day before the attack because of his controlling behaviour, but when he saw her in a Newcastle nightclub he ordered her to go home saying he would smash up her flat if she didn’t agree.
He punched her twice in the face, knocking her unconscious, which caused her to fall backwards into her bath, hitting her back and causing four fractures.
At the time of the assault Storey was already serving a community order for stabbing Miss Pringle in the neck with a key, a later hearing at Newcastle Crown Court was told.
Lindsey, who has an autistic son, Vincent, 13, said: ‘I told him I didn’t want to be with him. I parked my car around the corner so he didn’t know if I was in or not.
‘Somebody told him we were in a bar and he said to me “get out or I will drag you out”. ‘He was shouting and screaming in my face saying “who said you could go out”.
‘I said, “I’m not with you, it’s got nothing to do with you”. I went to the toilet so I could use my phone and he burst in and grabbed it off me. He looked at me and said “where is your car?”
‘When I told him it was at my friend’s he smashed me in the side of the face so hard I could feel my eye swell.
‘He smashed me in the side of the face and broke three teeth. He hit me again and broke another three teeth on the other side. I blacked out and I woke up on my back in the bath.
‘He used to say “I’ll kill you” all the time but I thought he was going to on that night.
‘I was in so much pain but the adrenalin got me up. My face was killing me, my eye was black and he put a hole in my retina.
‘I spat out bits of teeth in the sink. My back was in so much pain but we went down stairs together but he locked the front door. He was shouting he was going to kill me and I ran to the back door.’
She found Storey had locked her in the house and she was forced to escape via the back door to a neighbour’s house, who called the police and took her to hospital.
Lindsey added: ‘He knew I suffered from bad bones yet he still attacked me anyway.
‘He had put a hole in my retina when he punched me. The doctor said I was never going to get my sight back. I was devastated.’
