Man assaulted wife of 23 years to get money to buy drugs

Andrew John Mallia committed the “robbery in all but name” having earlier taken his spouse’s bank card without her permission to withdraw £30 for the drugs he wanted to buy.

In the assault Mallia, 50, bent back the victim’s thumb, causing her ligament and tendon damage.

Judge Robert Pawson jailed the defendant for two years after he pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and theft. The offences were committed while he was subject to a suspended sentence for crimes committed against the same victim.

“There was a breach of trust, you shared a home with your either current or former spouse,” Judge Pawson said.

“You had been taking money for months such that she describes herself as £5,000 in debt.”

At the Bournemouth Crown Court hearing on Tuesday, October 25, prosecuting, Althea Brooks said the defendant had been married to the victim for 23 years.

By the time of the offence in July the relationship had come to an end but Mallia was still living at their home in Littlemoor Avenue.

The “habitual” crack cocaine user had been asking his wife for money in order to fund that drug habit.

Ms Brooks said they were both at home when the defendant took her bank card without asking. Mallia went out and withdrew the full balance in the account.

“When he returned home he asked for money to pay a drug dealer who was arriving at the home a short time later,” the prosecutor said.

“The defendant was aware she had £20 in cash inside her phone case.”

The woman refused despite him asking repeatedly.

Ms Brooks said: “He said he would look like a **** in front of his dealer”.

The court heard the victim held the phone case in her hands against her chest when the defendant assaulted her by grabbing her hands.

“She failed to let go so he bent back her left thumb and this caused her immediate pain and made her let go,” Ms Brooks said.

Mallia took the £20 and went out of the house to give the money to his dealer in exchange for the drugs.

The victim contacted a friend and they went to Poole Hospital. There was no fracture but she had suffered ligament and tendon damage, which required a wrist splint.

The defendant was arrested three days after the incident but he made no comment in police interview.

Mallia, previously of Littlemoor Avenue, Bournemouth, had 34 previous convictions for 96 offences, dating back to the 1980s.

Ed Wylde, mitigating, said: “He is a man who at times is slow to speak but what was not slow was his explanation for acting the way he did.

“He just was thinking about drugs, He accepts the position he is in.”

Mr Wylde said the defendant had a mental impairment affecting his neurological development.

The judge said the defendant’s mental health was not directly linked to the commission of the offending.

He said: “The facts you have pleaded guilty to amount to a robbery in all but name.”