Ashtray attacker bloodied and blackmailed teenage girlfriend

Friday 18 January 2019

Maximilian Fawcett, 22, has been given a suspended sentence in an 'exceptional' ruling by Guernsey's Royal Court, after the Judge and Jurats heard how he had thrown a makeshift ashtray at his teenage girlfriend, before leaving her to wander the streets covered in blood from a head wound.

He was given a diagnosis of ADHD with Autism which was presented to the court as evidence by his defence lawyer yesterday.

Fawcett had originally been set to face a trial last October, and preparations had already begun to get the girl and others ready to give evidence when, the court heard, he changed his plea five days before the trial date.

When appearing for sentencing by the Royal Court yesterday, Fawcett pleaded guilty to three counts, maliciously wounding, unlawful assault and perverting the course of justice.

Pictured: Fawcett was sentenced by Guernsey's Royal Court yesterday. 

The incident he was sentenced for occurred on 8 May 2018 at a house Fawcett lived in alone at Rozel Court, St Peter Port.

The court heard that Guernsey's Emergency services received several calls to the island's control room from members of the public who had seen a girl with a head wound and fresh blood. The young woman was later picked up from La Vrangue and initially claimed the wound was self inflicted from "falling on a glass". 

The court heard that Fawcett had started an argument at the house after he suspected her of stealing from him. He began throwing her belongings out of the window, when he then fell. The complainant tried to help him up and he bit her on the shoulder, before punching himself in the face using her fist.

He then threw a 'Yankee' candle holder - which had been used as an ashtray - at the woman before making contact with the wall.

"He shouted at her that she deserved what was happening to her," the court heard.

Pictured: A Yankee Candle  (file image). 

In hospital the woman was found to have a 4cm full laceration on her forehead from the impact of the glass object which split the skin. Visible bite marks were also found on her shoulder which formed the case for the assault charge.

A police officer who had dealt with the woman before was able to speak with her privately to work out the actual chain of events. 

In the meantime, Fawcett had posted on his own Facebook page, asking the whereabouts of his girlfriend. Although, the court heard that a landlord - who did not seek help for the bleeding woman - had seen the two talking as she left. Guernsey Police visited Fawcett's home and found him seemingly just getting out of the shower. He was arrested and released on bail. The property was searched and blood stains were found along with a dent in the wall, and the intact candle holder/ashtray was found in the bathroom with a bloodied cloth stuffed inside.

Pictured: The 18-year-old girl was picked up by Police in La Vrangue after leaving her then-boyfriend's property at Rozel Court. 

The man was released on bail shortly after the incident, on the condition that he stayed with his parents at their house in the UK and did not make contact with the victim. However there was contact between them.

The charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice was brought when the victim gave Guernsey Police screen shots from an auto-delete messaging app and 'Facetime' calls. The defendant denied sending those messages and accused the victim of doctoring the video shots to appear within his bail frame. Testament from an expert on the technology showed this could not have been possible and the screenshots aligned with the messages from the defendant. 

Also found in that app were messages of a blackmailing nature and persistent requests for the victim to withdraw her complaint. One, called an 'empty threat' in court, read: 'could dr[o]p the nudes?'.

On 26 June last year, he was found in breach of his bail conditions and was remanded in custody where he remained until the court date scheduled for Thursday 17 January. 

Pictured: Fawcett was held on remand at Les Nicolles Prison but has now been given a suspended prison sentence.

A victim impact statement read out to the court yesterday detailed how the woman had been paranoid and losing sleep since the incident. She had been scared people were watching her on Fawcett's behalf.

"I had to do my GCSE English exam the day after. I have a scar which is an every day reminder of what he did to me. I haven't thought about having another relationship but I don't think I will be able to trust anyone again," it read. 

The court also heard how the victim - who was 18 at the time of this attack - was vulnerable as she had been subject to abuse in the past. 

Acting as his Defence Advocate, Samuel Steel spoke about the defendants upbringing on the island and his schooling at Le Rondin and Le Murier schools. He said his his family had been in South Africa and repeated that his father had "cut short a trip to Australia" to attend court.  He said of diagnosis of ADHD and Autism in adulthood: "It's a shame it had to take criminal offending to bring the condition to light,". 

After a lengthy two hour deliberation Judge Richard McMahon, the Deputy Bailiff, said in his summary that this was a "nasty and vicious attack on the victim with ongoing effects". There were several aggravating factors including concealment and the crime was said to easily cross the custodial threshold as per the guidelines set out for this kind of offence. It was said to be a "serious offence" in which he had sought to undermine the course of justice. 

"Cases of this nature would have been able to pervert the course of justice completely and could've made the victim feel the offence was her fault," he said. 

There were concerns raised from character references about the defendant's mental health while in prison and his treatment there including a "£4000 bounty on his head" however these were in "sharp contrast" with a psychiatric report compiled two days before the hearing. 

It was decided by the court that the best course of action was for the defendant to leave the island and live with his parents rather than serve a prison sentence on the island. He was said to have difficulties that had "not been addressed successfully to date". 

Concluding, in sentencing, Fawcett was handed concurrent sentences for all three counts amounting to a two year prison sentence suspended for three years. He had already served seven months in custody after breaching his bail during the earlier court proceedings.

Pictured top: Guernsey's Court sentenced Fawcett yesterday.