Girlfriend stomper gets five years in jail

A Sydney man has been jailed for a minimum of five years for a vicious attack on his girlfriend.

When Sydney man Trent Wainwright got angry at his 19-year-old girlfriend late one night, he threw her onto a concrete driveway, stomped repeatedly on her head and hurled a heavy terracotta pot at her.

Wainwright had been out drinking with work mates on January 16, 2010, and returned to their Mortdale home intoxicated, and apparently paranoid about some text messages she'd received on her phone.

Their relationship was already volatile but Wainwright was a man prone to fits of spontaneous rage.

After the then 27-year-old was done with her she was unconscious, her head lying in a one-litre pool of her own blood.

Her jaw bone and both eye sockets were fractured, her teeth loose and she had lacerations to her face.

The damage left the young woman on a liquid diet for nearly six weeks and she still suffers from her injuries.

But as the man who inflicted them was sentenced to a minimum of five years in jail on Thursday, he didn't show any signs of concern.

Wainwright repeatedly interrupted Judge Stephen Norrish as he handed the now 32-year-old a maximum sentence of eight years and one month, even requesting a bathroom break at one point.

Judge Norrish recounted how Wainwright had screamed at his girlfriend to "get out of the f***ing house", before lifting her up under her armpits and throwing her out the door.

She lost balance and fell, hit her head on some concrete steps and lost consciousness, he told Downing Centre District Court.

Wainwright then stomped on her head "with considerable force", before picking up a clay pot weighing nearly seven kilograms and throwing it against her head so ferociously it smashed.

Afterwards, the court heard, he said: "the f***in' dumb bitch deserved it".

"That's incorrect, Your Honour," Wainwright declared from the dock, prompting a glare from Judge Norrish, who ordered him to stop talking.

Wainwright told police he thought his drink had been spiked that night and his girlfriend had provoked him by coming at him with a knife.

This was dubious, Judge Norrish concluded, given no knife was found in or around the premises.

Throughout the protracted matter Wainwright, who's been in custody for two and a half years, dismissed three legal teams and changed his plea on multiple occasions.

Judge Norrish acknowledged Wainwright had suffered a "disturbed childhood" and had a range of mental health conditions.

Regardless, he'd "caused serious injury to the victim when she was in no condition to defend herself".

Wainwright will be eligible for parole in October 2016.


Share

3 min read

Published

Updated


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world