After Chantelle Hurst had been subjected to domestic violence, she bludgeoned Mark Seddon in his property near Wigan, Greater Manchester, amid “significant distress”
A mum followed her abusive ex home from a food bank and stabbed him with a broken Budweiser bottle.
Chantelle Hurst, 31, bludgeoned 41-year-old Mark Seddon after he had subjected her to domestic violence during an “awful relationship”. A court heard Hurst experienced “significant distress” amid the affair, yet a judge jailed her on Friday for 14 months for causing grievous bodily harm. Her not guilty plea to the more serious charge of wounding with intent was accepted.
The court heard the couple had been involved in an abusive seven-month relationship. At the time of the attack, Mr Seddon was on bail, banned from going near Hurst and had been ordered to wear an electronic tag. He gave a statement to police after the assault on him but subsequently declined to co-operate with the investigation.
Hurst, a former volunteer at a special needs school, attacked Mr Seddon in a fit of rage during the violent struggle at his home near Wigan, Greater Manchester. It was alleged Hurst slashed her own neck with a razor before she smashed the Budweiser beer bottle against a kitchen unit and then stabbed her former partner with the jagged edge.
Mr Seddon fought back but Hurst then grabbed a hammer from the living room which she then used to beat him again. He suffered severe cuts to his scalp, which required 22 staples and defence wounds to his hand but he was discharged from hospital shortly afterwards.
Sentencing Hurst at Bolton Crown Court, Judge Abigail Hudson said: “The court cannot be sure that there was no violence offered by Mr Seddon towards Miss Hurst on this particular occasion. Without casting any aspersions on the complainant whatsoever, I must give the benefit of the doubt to Miss Hurst although the level of violence she offered was unacceptable.
“There was a perhaps an element of being faced with a violent situation which would have undoubtedly caused her significant distress.”
She told Hurst: “Quite frankly you and Mr Seddon had been involved in an awful relationship for a number of months and he’s beaten you on several occasions. Two weapons were used in this incident but there were elements of self defence within your actions.
“At the time of this incident I accept you would have been very distressed and frightened as to what was going on but he did suffer significant injuries which are likely to have resulted in scarring.”
The court heard the incident occurred on December 24, 2021 after pair had had split up following a turbulent seven-month relationship, during which they lived together.
Mark Stephenson prosecuting said: “It is accepted the relationship was a toxic one and there had been other incidents in which the defendant was not the protagonist. They both had mood wings, one minute being fine and the next being violent towards each other. At the time the relationship ended Mr Seddon was arrested and was subsequently placed under an electronic monitoring system.
“On the day in question Mr Seddon went into Wigan town centre with a housemate to collect food parcels for themselves from a church. They encountered Miss Hurst who engaged in conversation with Mr Seddon and called him ‘a rat.’
“The two men walked back home but noticed they were being followed by the defendant. They cut down an alley and believed they had lost her but after getting home, the defendant suddenly forced her way into the address uninvited and an altercation broke out.
“Mr Seddon told her to leave but she refused to do so. He then said: ‘I’m on a tag because of you – you need to get out now. F..k off’ and the defendant walked into the bathroom where the complaint believed she was shelf harming with a razor. He followed her in and put his arms around her to prevent any further harm being caused – but he says she then stood up and slashed her own the neck which started bleeding profusely.
“He said he dragged her into the kitchen to prevent her from hurting herself but there was a further struggle in which the defendant grabbed a nearby glass bottle, smashed it and used the broken glass to stab him multiple times to the top of his head.
“He said he recoiled from the attack and grabbed hold of her again but he then felt something hard which proved to be hammer which was used to hit him again on the head. A further struggle ensued before he was able to remove the hammer from her grip.”
Police arrived at the property after being alerted by Mr Seddon’s friend. Initially Mr Seddon falsely said the injuries were self inflicted and he was then arrested on suspicion of assault whilst Hurst was treated for her neck injury in the back of an ambulance.
But she was said to have become violent and aggressive towards police and paramedics and was herself arrested. In police interview Hurst said Mr Seddon had assaulted her first and had taken her mobile phone from her and tried to stop her leaving the property. She also claimed Mr Seddon hit her with the hammer and she struck him with the bottle in self-defence.
Mr Stephenson added: “She accepts hitting him with the bottle but has always said it was him with a razor and not her and she did not take the razor to the house.
“The best he could say was the razor did not belong to him and that it has been brought to the property but he had no proof of that.
“It came to point when the Crown could no longer rely on Mr Seddon. He was wanted for various other matters and he was not assisting in moving the matter forward. We could not with absolute certainty say that this happened in exactly in the way that he said it happened. Clearly in the past he has been the main aggressor and the fact is she was a victim of domestic abuse at his hands.”
Hurst had 18 previous offences on her record including assault on police and emergency workers and being drunk and disorderly. In February 2021 – ten months before the attack – she was jailed for 16 weeks after she spat at one police officer, racially abused another and doused a third with lager during a bust up at her home.
In mitigation defence counsel Alex Beevers said: “She has had a profoundly difficult life, a difficult childhood, a difficult adolescence and a difficult adulthood. She also has an unfortunate history of becoming romantically involved with abusive partners.
“A combination of these experiences has led her to do this. However she doesn’t excuse her actions – she actually recognises custody is the the most appropriate place for her.”
