A DRUNKEN lout who bit and stamped on his new girlfriend has been jailed – after a judge pulled stumps on the man’s deferred sentence.

Kevin Wolton had not long been released from prison when he struck up a relationship with the woman as they stayed in the same bed and breakfast in April last year.

Their five-day relationship ended on April 29 after Wolton subjected his new partner to a prolonged assault in which he stamped on her head and bit her ankle.

Last November, Judge Peter Crabtree deferred sentence for six months after hearing that the 38-year-old defendant was remorseful, had beaten an alcohol addiction while on remand and was committed to changing his ways.

Wolton was back before Swindon Crown Court on Wednesday – two months before his deferred sentence was up. The court heard he had since been before the magistrates’ court on at least one occasion, including earlier this month when he was given a curfew for swearing at a Salisbury bank manager. The probation service suspected him of relapsing into alcohol use and cutting off his GPS tag, although Wolton denied it.

Sending him down for 16 months, Judge Crabtree said: “Having considered the offences which you have committed in the meantime it is clear to me that this deferment isn’t a deferment that has worked and appropriate punishment - given that in my view there isn’t a realistic prospect of rehabilitation in the immediate future - is to impose a sentence that I had in mind [in November].”

Last year, the court was told Wolton’s victim had only recently escaped a violent partner when she met her new boyfriend. Both Wolton and his victim were heavy drinkers and their relationship was described as toxic.

He had quickly moved into her bedsit flat. It was there that the woman had been subjected to a number of assaults.

On April 28, he had grabbed her by the arms and “dragged her around”.

The following day, in an ordeal that lasted several hours, the woman claimed she had been thrown to the bed, her head stamped on and her ankle bitten. Wolton had smashed her kitchen wall with a hammer.

Police were alerted after a silent 999 call. The call-handler heard a woman say “why did you bite me on the leg?”

They arrived to find Wolton and the woman sitting on the floor opposite each other; he was holding a hammer. The woman had bruising to her back, arms and ankle. The hammer had not been used to attack her.

Wolton, formerly of Sheppard Street, pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm, assault by beating and criminal damage. He had a long list of previous convictions, with 144 offences on his record including for theft, violence and sexual offending. He was jailed in March 2020 for assaulting a previous partner.

Under the terms of his deferred sentence imposed in November, Wolton was ordered to stay out of trouble, wear a trail monitoring device, not contact his former partner, live away from Swindon, remain abstinent from alcohol and comply with the probation service. 

Tony Bignall, for Wolton, said there had been difficulties with his client’s GPS tag. Upon his release from prison he had been put up in a hostel in Bristol. When he had to leave that hostel after a fortnight, he was left carrying around the “home monitoring unit” – an internet-enabled device that allowed the tagging company to stay in touch with the tag.

The probation service suspected him of having cut the tag from his leg, although this was vigorously denied by Wolton himself.

Asked by the judge if the tag had been cut off, Wolton replied from the dock “no, my friend” and lifted his ankle to show the court.