A FORMER honorary police officer who attacked a woman and left her with bruises all over her body has been jailed for 15 months.
The Royal Court heard yesterday that Simon Rhys Williams (44), who at the time of the incident weighed 23 stone, sat on top of the woman to pin her to the ground, placed his knees on either side of her head and put his hands on her neck to choke her.
He later threw her to the ground again and put his knee on her back, the court was told.
And when she told Williams she was going to phone the police, he replied: ‘I am the police.’
A doctor who examined the victim later said she had injuries to every part of her body.
Crown Advocate Simon Thomas, prosecuting, said the attack happened on 15 August last year, when both Islanders had been drinking. In the course of a row, Williams pushed the woman to the ground, sat on her and began to choke her.
She then bit his hand to get him to release her and he grabbed her phone, Crown Advocate Thomas said. As Williams tried to snatch it from her she hit him in the face with it. He then threw her to the ground again, the court was told.
Crown Advocate Thomas said that Williams himself phoned the police and accused the woman of attacking him. They arrested her but when her injuries were discovered they arrested Williams.
Crown Advocate Thomas said: ‘There were bruises on both sides of her neck, bruises on her chest and bruises on her arms when she was thrown to the ground.
‘The doctor who examined her said the neck is a difficult place to bruise accidentally.’
Williams told the police she had punched him in the face and that the injuries to her arms may have been caused when he ‘frogmarched’ her out of the house. But Crown Advocate Thomas said: ‘He was unable to account for the bruises to her neck.’
Williams was initially accused of grave-and-criminal assault but after a three-day trial in April he was convicted of the lesser charge of common assault.
He denied both charges. Crown Advocate Thomas said: ‘He has shown no remorse. This was a sustained attack which caused significant injury.’
He recommended a jail sentence of 15 months, saying: ‘The custody threshold has been passed.’
Advocate Adam Harrison, defending, argued for a community punishment order instead. He highlighted that Williams had no previous convictions and that the offence was out of character.
Advocate Harrison said: ‘The assault was not in any way planned. It occurred very much in the heat of the moment.
‘Although there was bruising and it was extensive, the injuries were nevertheless of a non-permanent nature.’
Mentioning his client’s time as an honorary police officer in St Lawrence, Advocate Harrison added: ‘It demonstrates that Mr Williams is the sort of individual who is prepared to give up his time to support the community.’
However, Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae, presiding, told Williams: ‘We have seen the photos, which show very clearly what you did.
‘The only sentence we can impose is the sentence requested by the Crown.’
Williams was also given a five-year restraining order forbidding him from having any contact with the victim.
Jurats Elizabeth Dulake and Andrew Cornish were sitting.
