A jealous ex boyfriend who inflicted a savage beating on his former partner which left her in a month-long coma with a collapsed lung and numerous broken bones has been jailed for nearly ten years.
Shaka Williams, who carried out the horrific beating against Britney Bashforth on April 13 this year, was told as he stood in the dock at Sheffield Crown Court on Monday that he was extremely lucky not to be serving a life sentence for murder.
The 24-year-old mother-of-one suffered a series of life-threatening injuries including multiple facial fractures and a collapsed lung at the hands of the sadistic 31-year-old.
Shaka Williams (right), who carried out the horrific beating against Britney Bashforth (left) on April 13 this year, was told as he stood in the dock at Sheffield Crown Court on Monday that he was extremely lucky not to be serving a life sentence for murder
Britney Bashforth, a 24-year-old mother-of-one, suffered a series of life-threatening injuries including multiple facial fractures and a collapsed lung at the hands of the sadistic 31-year-old
She was also left with liver and spleen bleeds, eight broken ribs, a broken nose and jaw, a fractured vertebrae and extensive bruising all over her body.
Ms Bashforth was in a coma for a month and spent eight weeks in hospital after undergoing the surgical removal of part of her bowel.
Williams was jailed for nine years and ten months after admitting grievous bodily harm.
Dressed in a grey polo shirt and grey trousers, the defendant, who is from Sheffield, said nothing as Judge Graham Reeds QC handed down the sentence.
Addressing Williams, Judge Reeds QC said: ‘What you have admitted is truly horrific…you set about her in such a jealous rage that you left her with particularly serious and life threatening injuries.
‘Short of killing her, it is difficult to see how her injuries could have been worse.’
In a statement read to the court Ms Bashforth said her life had been ‘ruined’ by Williams, who is the father of her child.
She said: ‘Shaka Williams almost killed me, I’m lucky to be alive. I’ve lived in this violent relationship for two years, and the final attack upon me by Shaka was the worst.’
The 24-year-old mother-of-one suffered a series of life-threatening injuries including multiple facial fractures and a collapsed lung at the hands of the sadistic 31-year-old. Williams was jailed for nine years and ten months after admitting grievous bodily harm
The 24-year-old said she has suffered from anxiety, depression and hair loss since the attack.
She still has to use a surgical bag to compensate for her lost bowel function.
Prosecutor Deborah Smithies told the court in the hours leading to the attack Ms Bashforth had enjoyed a night at home with friends and a neighbour.
She went to bed after the last of her guests left at around 12.30am, but was awoken at 3am by Williams, who had climbed up to the French windows of her first floor bedroom.
Ms Bashforth let Williams in as requested and he soon started an argument about a packet of tobacco he found at her flat because he did not believe it was hers.
She told him her neighbour had left the tobacco behind and Williams insisted that she call her neighbour immediately to confirm what she had told him.
Ms Smithies said: ‘She declined and said, ‘why would I do that in the middle of the night? We’re not even together anymore’.
‘That’s when he set about physically assaulting her over what must have been a significant period of time…he knocked her unconscious.
‘The next thing she remembers is waking up in great pain and wondering what on earth had happened to her.
‘Her first thought was that she must have been in some sort of car crash, so extensive were her injuries.’
The next day Williams persistently phoned a mutual friend and told her she needed to take Ms Bashforth, who is also from Sheffield, to hospital.
He did not tell the woman what had happened or how badly her friend was injured.
Due to work commitments the friend did not arrive at Ms Bashforth’s flat until 3.30pm, more than 12 hours after the attack, by which time she was barely breathing.
Judge Reeds QC said: ‘She suffered such extensive bruising that when you eventually did raise the alarm and a friend found her, she was barely able to breathe.
‘Her friend describes the horror in seeing the state in which you left her.’
He added: ‘You are a physically powerful man.
‘She could never hope to defend herself from you and you must have been in a state of rage to do that to her, and then, almost as bad leave her for dead without giving any thought about getting immediate help for what you had done to her.
‘You went home, and no doubt went to sleep, not caring to do anything to raise the alarm until much later.’
Sean Sullivan, defending Williams, said his client had inflicted Ms Bashforth’s injuries with a ‘flurry of hard punches’.
This was questioned by Judge Reeds QC, who said he found it ‘very difficult’ to believe that Williams had inflicted all of the injuries with his fists.
‘The extent of the bruising to the body, the limbs and the genital area is not that which generally would be associated with simply punching a person, whatever the circumstances,’ Judge Reeds said.
He said the evidence suggested Williams had used his feet to inflict at least some of the injuries.
In addition to jailing Williams, Judge Reeds QC also granted a restraining order which prohibits him from contacting Ms Bashforth indefinitely.
He said: ‘This was self-evidently a sustained attack in order to cause such extensive injuries.
‘You are very fortunate that she did not die or you would now be starting a life sentence for murder.’