Tattoo artist is found guilty of assaulting wife (From Craven Herald)

Tattoo artist is found guilty of assaulting wife

3:07pm Thursday 10th January 2013 in News

Skipton tattoo artist Darren Lovell punched his wife in the face because of her relationship with another man, a court heard.

Lovell, 50, had denied the assault by beating of his wife, Emma, at the flat they once shared above his tattoo business in Water Street on November 6.

But Skipton magistrates found him guilty after finding his evidence during his trial inconsistent, not always credible, and because he had brought up information he had not previously mentioned when interviewed by police.

The court heard that Lovell and his wife had been drinking at the Royal Shepherd on November 6 and had returned to Lovell’s flat where they had argued.

Lovell, who the court heard had two previous convictions for assaulting his wife and was in breach of a suspended prison sentence, had left to go back to the pub, leaving Mrs Lovell thinking he had locked her inside.

When he returned some hours later, he flew into a rage, swept items off a work surface and punched Mrs Lovell in the face.

The court heard Mrs Lovell called 999 and when the police arrived, they found her in tears and with a cut lip, and Lovell in an angry and agitated state. He was handcuffed and taken to the police station.

He later claimed they argued over his wife’s “affairs”, that he acted in self defence, that she self-harmed, and that cuts on his knuckles were paper cuts as a result of his tattoo business.

In court, he added they had both attempted to “restrain” each other, and the reason why his wife’s face had been swollen and sore was because she needed dental treatment.

Mrs Lovell told the court that she had been in a relationship with Lovell for six years, been married for four, and that she had ended the relationship in June after her husband had become increasingly aggressive and violent towards her.

She said although they were no longer living together, they had maintained contact in an attempt to work on their relationship.

She said on November 6, Lovell had been angry because after they had split up, she had a relationship with another man and that it had been the other man’s birthday that day.

She had told him it was nothing to do with him, but that he had been very angry and hit her.

Although she had not needed hospital treatment, her face was swollen and the inside of her mouth was sore for a week.

Magistrates adjourned sentencing for reports.

They told Lovell that they would not be immediately invoking a six-month suspended prison sentence, given in December last year, but that did not mean it would not be invoked following the report by the probation service. He was given bail on condition he complied with an electronic curfew restricting him to his home between 9pm and 7am and did not go within 300 metres of Mrs Lovell’s home in Greenway, Glusburn.

An earlier condition that he not enter pubs or licensed premises in Skipton was lifted.