Keiran Dalton jailed for domestic violence in the street

Keiran Walton, 29, attacked the York woman in front of witnesses at 8.30am and left her with “horrible” injuries, York Crown Court heard.

He already had a long history of violence including against other women before the incident in a residential street off Malton Road, York.

“He is one of those men who clearly have a problem with women,” said the Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris.

He warned that Walton was the kind of man who “again and again and again” beat up women and told him to take a long hard think about whether he should be in a relationship with any woman in future.

“It is time you understand this has got to stop,” he told Walton. “Stay away from women , they don’t need it.”

After looking at pictures of the injuries the woman suffered, he said: “This was a persistent assault and the injuries are horrible, her eyes are closed. She has been beaten black and blue.”

Walton, of Lime Avenue, Hebden Bridge, pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm and was jailed for two years.

Celine Kart, prosecuting, said Walton and the woman began a relationship in January this year. They did not live together.

On June 8, she had been staying at a friend’s house off Malton Road.

A neighbour heard a car trying to start and heard the woman say there was no petrol.

Looking out of her window, she saw Walton in an agitated state and the woman inside the car. The man banged the woman’s head against part of the car.

The neighbour went outside and the woman cried at her to call 999. Walton dragged her out of the car into the middle of the road and began to throw punches at her.

For Walton, Lily Wildman said he accepted he needed help and hoped to get some while in prison.

The evening before the attack, he had been taking drugs.

Walton maintained that his behaviour that morning had been “out of character” despite his previous convictions and influenced by the drugs he had taken. 

He had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactive disorder and had been prescribed medication for it.

The court heard Walton’s violence began when he was in his mid-teens and included convictions for causing grievous bodily harm, harassment, breaching a restraining order, malicious communications and causing actual bodily harm.