Sunderland thug left girlfriend with shoe mark imprinted on her face and bruising to her brain after violent attack

Tyrin Miller, 22, had wrongly accused his victim of being unfaithful but asked to meet up with her at his home on September 19 last year.

Newcastle Crown Court heard the 18-year-old told him she was visiting a friend who lived near his home that day - and he was waiting for her when she arrived.

The teen cannot remember the violence Miller inflicted upon her but was able to match the tread pattern left on her cheek to trainers worn by him.

The court heard the vicious attack also left the woman with a fractured cheekbone, black eye and bruising to her brain.

Prosecutor Michael Bunch told the court: "She reached the friend's address and continued to receive messages from the defendant, asking to meet with her.

"From that point, it would appear as a result of the blow to the head she received during the course of the attack, she described her recollection as a little hazy.

"She can recall going down to the communal entrance in the multiple occupancy premises where her friend lived.

"The defendant was already inside the address.

"All she can recall beyond that is the defendant swinging a punch towards her head.

"She has no recollection until she came to in the Sunderland Royal Hospital."

The court heard the victim suffered significant head injures, a fractured cheekbone, black eye and bruising to her brain.

Mr Bunch added: "There was a footprint, clearly, over her right cheek, of a single training shoe.

"She identified the tread pattern matching those worn by the defendant."

Miller, of Roker Avenue, Sunderland, who has a previous conviction for an attack on another partner, admitted assault.

Assistant Judge Advocate General Edward Legard sentenced him to 12 months behind bars with a four year restraining order to keep him away from the victim.

The judge told Miller: "This was, on any view, a cowardly, unprovoked and particularly unpleasant offence of domestic abuse.

"You subjected her to what can only be described as a vicious assault which left her semi-conscious. Indeed the next thing she remembers was waking up in the Sunderland Royal Hospital.

"She suffered a displaced fracture to her right cheekbone, bruising to her head coupled with bruising to her right eye.

"She had firmly imprinted on her face the sole of a shoe, your shoe."

Prosecutors accepted Miller's basis of plea that he inflicted some of the injuries "recklessly".

But the judge added: "At the end of the day, this was act of serious, unprovoked violence for which you must and will be punished.

"There is simply no place for it."

Lorraine Mustard, defending, said Miller has stopped drinking alcohol, is still a young man and is in need of assistance.

Miss Mustard added: "He has never experienced custody before.

"We are living through a pandemic, an immediate custodial sentences will be far more onerous."

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