A man who repeatedly stabbed his partner and smashed a plate over her head after locking her inside the house has been jailed for more than two years.
Sam Mason, 37, flew into a drunken rage at the house in York after he and the victim had been to the wedding of one of Mason’s relatives, a court heard.
Brooke Morrison, prosecuting at York Crown Court, said that when the victim and another named woman returned to her house in Greenwood Grove following the wedding celebrations, Mason was “waiting outside for them”.
What happened next was a sudden explosion of extreme violence during which Mason’s then partner thought she was about to be killed.
“All three went inside and an argument started,” said Ms Morrison. As the clash escalated, Mason took a knife from his partner’s kitchen and used it cut his own wrists.
When the other young woman, a relative of Mason’s, took out her phone and tried to call for help, he pushed her to the floor and then grabbed her as she tried to flee from the house.
He snatched her phone and stamped on it repeatedly, before dropping it in a mop bucket full of water. He then pushed her out of the back door and locked it, which left him alone inside the property with his girlfriend.
First, he smashed a plate over his partner’s head, then punched her repeatedly in the face and pulled her back as she tried to run to the front door. He then cut both her arms several times with the kitchen knife and cut himself.
Meanwhile, the other woman, locked out in the street, woke a neighbour who called police.
When officers arrived at the house, Mason’s partner was screaming for help from an upstairs bedroom window.
Mason was stood at the top of the stairs and refused to come down when asked to by the officers.
He then “appeared to” collapse and officers gave him first aid, although Ms Morrison said this may have been a bluff on Mason’s part.
He and his partner were taken to hospital where Mason – who sustained a “significant amount” of blood loss himself due to self-inflicted cuts to his wrists – refused treatment and was discharged.
His partner was kept in overnight after suffering multiple injuries including a haematoma, or blood pooling around the vessels. She also suffered a cut to the side of her head, swelling and bruising to her cheek and eyes, three cuts to her arms, a cut to the palm of her hand and bruising to her fingertips.
She was discharged from hospital the following morning after having the lacerations glued.
Mason, of Hatfield Walk, York, was arrested and charged initially with strangling and wounding his partner with intent, as well as assaulting the other woman causing actual bodily harm and damaging her phone,
He denied the allegations, only to plead guilty to alternative charges of wounding his partner without intent and common assault against the other woman on the day his trial was due to start earlier this year.
The prosecution ultimately dropped the ABH and strangulation charges. Mason also entered a belated guilty plea to damaging the iPhone.
He appeared for sentence via video link on Thursday (5 March) after being remanded in Hull Prison.
Prosecuting barrister Ms Morrison said that Mason and the wounding victim had been in an “on-off” relationship for about four years before the incident on 17 August last year.
She read out victim impact statements from the two women who were in court to see Mason face justice.
Mason’s now-ex-partner said: “I believed I was going to die in my own home.”
She added: “I can honestly say that my life will never be the same again. He stabbed me repeatedly and I have the physical scars to remind me of this.”
She had now lost the “safe-space feeling my home once gave me” and was now looking to move house.
The mother-of-two said the psychological impact of the attack had been “overwhelming” and she was now having to take medication to help her sleep. She had been referred for therapy to help her cope with the trauma.
“I’m no longer the confident person I was before,” she added.
The other female victim said she had suffered “nightmares and flashbacks about that night and I struggle to sleep properly”.
Mason’s vast criminal record comprised 44 previous offences, primarily for violence and including previous domestic incidents.
In November 2023, he was given a suspended prison sentence for battery, assault causing actual bodily harm and criminal damage. The new offences were in breach of that sentence.
Defence barrister Susannah Proctor said that Mason, a father-of-two, had mental-health problems stemming from a traumatic childhood and was prone to suicidal thoughts.
He had been diagnosed with an emotionally unstable personality disorder which had been exacerbated by alcohol and drug abuse.
She said that at the time of “these dreadful events” at the home of his ex-partner, Mason was going through an emotional “breakdown” following the death of one of his best friends.
Judge Simon Batiste said it was “difficult to imagine just how frightening it must have been” for the two victims, particularly his ex-partner.
“It is clear from the victim-impact statements from both the complainants that this incident left a significant psychological toll on both of them,” he added.
The judge noted Mason’s “extremely long record” including 15 violent “offences against the person” and previous convictions for wounding with intent and attempted robbery which meant that he was a “dangerous offender” in the eyes of the law.
For the wounding, Mason received a jail sentence of two years and three months. He was given a consecutive three months for breaching the suspended sentence from 2023.
Mason was told he would serve two-thirds of that sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence, if the Parole Board deemed him safe to be released at that stage.
Upon his eventual release from custody, Mason would then have to serve an extended four-year period on prison licence as a dangerous offender.
Mr Batiste also made a seven-year restraining order banning Mason from contacting the victim directly and going to her home or any place she was residing.
