Michael Rogers (Image: North Wales Police)
Last Updated: 27 seconds ago
A domestic abuser pulled his ex-girlfriend out of a friend’s car at a McDonald’s drive-thru before throwing her into his mother’s vehicle parked in front.
Michael Rogers, 27, had been in a relationship with the victim but they split up on Christmas Day last year after she said she had “made a mistake” in getting back together with him.
Four days later, on December 29, the victim and a friend visited the McDonald’s restaurant in Rhyl – where they encountered Rogers, who was in his mother’s car directly ahead of them in the drive-thru queue.
The confrontation
Cardiff Crown Court heard that when Rogers spotted the victim and her friend, he got out of his mother’s car and went to the passenger door where the victim was sitting.
Prosecutor Emmalyne Downing said Rogers accused the victim of laughing at him and shouted: “Get into my mother’s car.”
The victim refused as she was frightened, having never seen the defendant behave that way before. Rogers told her he was “not going nicely”.
He opened the car door and briefly walked back to his mother’s vehicle before returning and demanding the victim “take off her clothes” – because he had bought the tracksuit she was wearing as a present.
The attack
Rogers then grabbed the victim and dragged her from the car, throwing her onto the grass before forcing her into his mother’s vehicle.
Once inside, he pulled at her clothing and ripped out her hair extensions, while his mother shouted: “Make her be quiet.”
His mother then drove a short distance away as the victim feared for her life and believed she “wouldn’t see her children again”.
She was eventually able to escape the car and ran back to her friend’s vehicle. Rogers and his mother drove off.
The victim was left with bruising to her hand and a sore head.
Sentencing
Rogers, of Denbigh Circle, Kinmel Bay, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The court heard he has 11 previous convictions, including offences of battery and criminal damage – the latter committed against the same victim.
In mitigation, Matthew Dunford said his client was “genuinely sorry” for his behaviour and that his “abuse of illegal drugs” played a part in the offence.
Sentencing, Recorder Simon Hughes said: “This was a deliberate effort to degrade and humiliate her.”
Rogers was sentenced to 45 weeks in prison and made subject to a domestic abuse protection order for five years.
