Thug with appalling record threatened woman with hammer

Curtis Pearce, 33, had met his victim at some point in the Spring, and as she was homeless at the time he invited her to stay with him, Preston Crown Court heard.

Alison Whalley, prosecuting, told the court for the first two weeks everything was fine but then he became jealous and they started arguing.

Ms Whalley said: “On June 7 she was out with her friends and he began calling her.

"She didn’t pick up but then he started sending her abusive messages. He was also threatening her dog.

“She drove back to the defendant’s house but on the way saw him in a car.

Curtis Pearce (Image: Lancs Police)

“He rang her and said, ‘you better wipe that f***ing smile off your face before you get home’.”

When the victim arrived back at Pearce’s house, the couple began arguing, which went on for hours, Ms Whalley said.

She went on: “The victim was not responding, and he was getting angry.

“She eventually went to sleep but was woken by the defendant’s phone ringing.

“He answered and the person on the other end was saying things about the victim. Pearce then started calling her a slag and demanded to see her phone.”

Ms Whalley told the court Pearce began slamming her phone against the kitchen worktop and smashed the screen.

His victim tried to leave but he stopped her, grabbed her by the hair, picked up a hammer and started swinging it around.

He then knelt on his victim and pushed the hammer onto her face.

Ms Whalley said: “His phone went off again and he began videoing her, and then demanded she went to bed with him.

“When she woke in the morning they began arguing again, but she managed to get away and flagged down a passing car.”

The police were called and attended Pearce’s address where the hammer was recovered.

While searching the property, officers also found a cannabis cultivation with 10 plants, and discovered the electricity had been bypassed.

Pearce, of Horden View, Blackburn, has 16 convictions for 48 offences, and pleaded guilty to criminal damage, threatening a person with an offensive weapon, production of a controlled drug of class B and abstracting electricity.

Recorder Michelle Brown said: “You were convicted of contempt when you were before the magistrates for aggressive behaviour and were sentenced to seven days in custody.

“It was clearly a very frightening experience for your victim.

“You have an appalling record, the majority for violence. Violence has been a pattern for you since your first conviction when you were a youth in 2006.

“You have no regard for court orders and have breached them multiple times.

“You were convicted for assault and battery in 2007, affray and battery in 2007, actual bodily harm in 2008, a section 20 assault in 2009, a further assault in 2009, and criminal damage in 2011.

“In 2012 you got a suspended sentence for actual bodily harm, you breached this by assaulting someone again in 2013, and then you were sent to prison for robbery.

“In 2022 you assaulted your previous partner and were in prison for that and shortly after you drove while disqualified, and were subject to supervision when you committed these offences.

“There’s a long-established pattern of violence against partners; it’s entrenched behaviour and disturbing behaviour.”

Pearce was jailed for two years and seven months and handed a six-year restraining order in respect of his victim.