KentOnline

bannermobile

News

Sport

Business

What's On

Advertise

Contact

Other KM sites

CORONAVIRUS WATCH KMTV LIVE SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTERS LISTEN TO OUR PODCASTS LISTEN TO KMFM
SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE
News

Stephen Harris guilty of pouring boiling water over lover in Folkestone

By: Paul Hooper phooper@thekmgroup.co.uk

Published: 00:01, 05 December 2016

A musician threw boiling water over his lover during a bust-up at their Folkestone home.

Stephen Harris was angry about her relationship with another man and in a fit of temper scalded her.

Harris, 40, told his terrified girlfriend: “No-one is going to look at you ever again...are they?”

A judge has now warned Harris, of Marine Terrace, he faces a long jail sentence after he was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

The victim had boiling water poured over her. Stock picture.

The jury had retired for more than seven-and-a-half hours before returning a guilty verdict by a 10-2 majority.

mpu1

The woman, who also sang with her former lover, was left with scars to her stomach, thighs and other parts of the body after being treated at the East Grinstead Specialist Burns Unit in June this year.

Prosecutor Simon Taylor told how the couple had been in an on-off relationship for three years.

He said: “It is a relationship that could properly be described as volatile and in the past (she) had made reports to the police of being assaulted.”

The victim had told Canterbury Crown Court how she had been in bed on June 2 when Harris returned from getting milk.

She said she heard her boyfriend making himself a drink after filling up the kettle in the kitchen.

She said that while he was making the drink he was calling her names about her sexual relationship with another man.

mpu2

“He said I was a slut and was beyond anyone’s help, “ she added.

Harris shouted that the ex-lover is going to “f****** get it. He is really going to get hurt when I see him!”

He then returned to the bedroom holding a red kettle and threw scalding water at her, shouting: “F***** have that! No-one is going to look at you now..are they?”

The victim said she felt excruciating pain to her body and on a 1-10 scale of pain...said it was “ a 10!”

The case was heard at Canterbury Crown Court

She added: “I was screaming. I said: ‘Babe, babe, what did you do that for?, ‘ She added.

As she sat in the bedroom in agony she shouted: “Why did you do that? Help me..help me!”

Harris told her to get into the shower but she fled the flat and ran for help at Gillespie’s pub in Harbour Way, asking a man to call for an ambulance.

Paramedics arrived and gave her morphine for the pain before she was taken to Ashford’s William Harvey Hospital.

Mr Taylor said: “That phrase showed that the defendant intended to cause her really serious harm when he threw the boiling water over her.

“That indicated he wanted to change his partner’s appearance...and for the worst.”

Harris, who claimed he was on the verge of landing sponsors for his music career, claimed he hadn’t boiled any water and that the injuries had been caused by herself but the jury rejected his account.

Sentence was adjourned for a new report on the woman's injuries. He was remanded in custody.

More by this author

sticky

© KM Group - 2024