A “POSSESSIVE” man has been jailed after fracturing his ex’s eye socket with a single punch.

Barry Alfred Puttock, 65 and of no fixed address, appeared before Bournemouth Crown Court on Wednesday, January 25, for sentencing after being convicted at a trial of one count of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

The court heard how, on June 26, 2021, Puttock assaulted his victim in the bedroom of a flat in Kimberly Road, in Southbourne, after telling her “don’t goad me”. 

Bournemouth Echo:

He then proceeded to punch the woman, a former girlfriend, in the face with such  ferocity he fractured her eye socket with just one punch - leaving her needing ten stitches and with a permanent scar.

Puttock made a series of claims during the trial; saying he was ‘acting in self-defense’, his victim’s daughter had ‘come at him’ with a scratching post and the victim had punched herself in the face.

In a statement read to court, Puttock’s victim said the assault had forced her to move out of her house and left her ‘still homeless to this day’. 

She said: “In the days and weeks and months that follow the assault, I’m still scared of him. I still feel unsafe.”

His relationship with the victim had been described as ‘volatile’ and ‘littered with domestic abuse’ on both sides: at the time of the attack the pair were no longer together.

Richard Tutt, mitigating, said, “the whole thing was plainly awful” but argued Puttock was “deeply ashamed” and had “acted in excessive self defense”.

In sentencing, His Honour Judge Robert Pawson said he “without hesitation” accepted claims Puttock could be “possessive” and ‘did not accept’ claims he was provoked into punching his victim.

He said: “I am quite sure you stood in front of her in the bedroom, drunk, and you punched her probably as hard as you could in the face: causing her to need, I think, ten stitches.

“You do not accept the jurors' verdict. You maintain you lashed out in self defense. That is in my eyes a million miles away from accepting the result of the jurors verdict.

“Your victim was highly vulnerable. I accept that on occasion she could be provocative but she did nothing, nothing, on that night to justify what you did to her.”

Puttock was sentenced to jail for a period of 30 months with a restraining order imposed prohibiting direct or indirect contact with his victim for eight years.