Swansea court jails man who strangled his mother twice

A 23-year-old man has been jailed for 33 months. He twice gripped his mother by the throat when she told him to leave her home, and later punched a woman in the face during a taxi journey in Swansea.

James Arundel, of no fixed abode, was locked up at Swansea Crown Court. The judge agreed with the probation service that the danger he presents to the public could not be safely handled in the community.

The charges

Arundel had already admitted five offences before he returned to court to be sentenced:

• Two counts of strangulation
• Assault occasioning actual bodily harm
• Criminal damage
• Theft, relating to an unconnected shoplifting incident on June 13 in which £15 worth of food was taken from a Co-op

He admitted the strangulation charges on the day his trial had been due to begin.

Two attacks on his mother

Prosecutor Abul Hussain said both strangulations happened in January, while Arundel was staying at his mother’s home. She described him regularly subjecting her to verbal abuse there. On each occasion the violence followed her asking him to go because of the way he was behaving.

Both times he seized her throat and squeezed until she was fighting for breath. During the first attack the pair tumbled down a flight of steps.

On the second occasion she managed to force him out of the property. She then had to sit with her back pressed against the front door to keep him out while he kicked it in.

The attacks were reported and Arundel was arrested on January 26. In a prepared statement during interview, he claimed it was his mother who had grabbed him by the neck.

Punches in a taxi

On September 23, while on bail, Arundel turned on a woman he had been seeing for around six weeks. The pair had been staying at the Ibis hotel in Swansea’s SA1 area. They had gone into the city centre, where they argued over a bank card.

On the taxi ride back, he began screaming at her and made unpleasant remarks about her father, who is terminally ill. He then punched her in the face several times.

When the taxi stopped, Arundel left, and the driver took the injured woman to Swansea Central police station. She was later treated at Morriston Hospital for a wound above her right eye.

Officers traced and arrested him three days later. In another prepared statement, he said she had attacked him and that he had been defending himself.

A mother’s fear

In a statement read to the court by the prosecution, Arundel’s mother said she now suffers panic attacks. She said her anxiety levels had “gone through the roof”.

She said no words could capture the fear her son had caused her, and that neither her mental nor her physical health would ever be the same.

She said: “No mother should be afraid of her son”.

The court heard Arundel has two previous convictions, the most recent for shoplifting in October.

The defence

Megan Williams, representing Arundel, said his upbringing had been “blighted by adverse childhood experiences”. He was taken out of his mother’s care at an early age and raised by a grandparent, before going into the care system at 14.

She said he started using cannabis and amphetamine in his early teens. By 16 he had moved on to cocaine and alcohol, and by 18 he was addicted to crack and heroin.

He was effectively homeless and living in a tent near Swansea Civic Centre, she said, and he accepted that his life was chaotic.

Ms Williams said his drug use meant he remembered little of the events, but he was not disputing the prosecution’s account. Her instructions were that he had been drug-free in prison and that “for a first time in a long time” his thinking was no longer clouded by “mind fog”.

The judge’s remarks

Judge Paul Thomas KC told Arundel that the way he had treated his mother was “quite simply appalling”. He said being throttled by her son, “not knowing how far you would go in temper”, must have been terrifying for her.

The judge said it was a concern that police logs showed a “very significant number” of incidents involving Arundel’s behaviour. Calls had come from his mother, from partners, and from staff and other residents at hotels where he had lived, though none had led to charges or convictions.

He said he agreed with the author of the pre-sentence report that Arundel posed a continuing risk to the public which could not be managed in the community.

The sentence

After reductions for his guilty pleas, Arundel was given 33 months in prison. The court heard he will spend one-third of that term in custody, then be released on licence for the rest.

He was also made subject to restraining orders banning him from contacting his mother or the woman assaulted in the taxi for five years.