Cowardly Afghanistan veteran spared jail for 'brutal' attack on 'vulnerable' woman

A COWARDLY former soldier repeatedly kicked a woman in a brutal attack causing her ‘excruciating pain’ and leaving her ‘living in fear’.
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Dad-of-one Daniel Vincent, 31, left his victim with bruises and grazes to her arms, neck, lower back, shoulder, buttocks and thighs in the drunken assault.

A trial at Portsmouth Crown Court previously heard how the woman grabbed the Afghanistan veteran - who was wearing shorts but with no underwear - by his testicles during the attack in a bid to stop him.

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The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, watched as Vincent was spared jail by a judge who was told the defendant cares for his mother, employs up to six people in a construction company and is a dad to his four-year-old daughter.

Portsmouth Crown Court. Picture: César Moreno HuertaPortsmouth Crown Court. Picture: César Moreno Huerta
Portsmouth Crown Court. Picture: César Moreno Huerta

Vincent, of Chidham Close, Havant, had denied assault occasioning actual bodily harm but was convicted at a trial. He denied sexual assault and was cleared by a jury.

Now he has been handed an 18-month jail term suspended for 18 months. He must complete 250 hours’ unpaid work and 20 rehabilitation days.

Sentencing, judge Timothy Mousley QC said: ‘You grabbed (her) by the throat and then you proceeded to kick and punch her. This was a brutal attack but a cowardly one.

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‘The injuries that she suffered are set out in the photographs. There was excessive multiple bruising and grazing to her arms, neck, lower back, shoulder, buttocks and thigh and she was quite obviously in very significant pain as a result of your attack upon her.

‘She says that the physical injuries have healed but in December of last year she was feeling the effects mentallly. She was having flashbacks and nightmares and living in fear of you, and she still suffers with that and will do for a significant time.’

The judge said: ‘She was particularly vulnerable and obviously so. You must have realised that as you kicked her as she lay on the ground, and I’m satisfied your intention was to cause more serious harm that you actually did.’

Vincent must pay £1,250 costs and a five-year restraining order bans him from contacting the woman.

Rebecca Austin, mitigating, said: ‘This was an offence caused by a lack of consequential thinking.’