A CRACK cocaine addict with an ‘unenviable record’ has been jailed for an assault which culminated in him strangling his ex-girlfriend.
Damien Starkie, of Ainslie Street, Barrow, was sentenced at Preston Crown Court after previously pleading guilty to offences of intentional strangulation, assault by beating and criminal damage.
Prosecutor Elizabeth Walker said the incident started when Starkie – aged 42 - pulled the victim back by her coat as she was walking downstairs of a property.
She said the defendant then pushed the woman up the stairs causing her to fall to the floor after he had told her to go and get a jacket.
Ms Walker said Starkie then jolted her back and forth whilst saying ‘I will leather you. You will not know what has hit you. You dirty little cow’.
“He would not let her leave when he then grabbed her by the neck and held her down for a few seconds,” Ms Walker said.
The court heard Starkie finally removed a staircase spindle from a wooden banister.
Ms Walker told the court the parties had been in a ‘loving relationship’ since May 2025 but there were issues due to both being drug addicts.
“The victim was upset and in an intoxicated state when police arrived at the address,” Ms Walker outlined at the beginning of her opening.
“She told officers she had been ‘leathered’ by the defendant but did not want to give anymore details because she did not want to ‘grass’ on him because said she wanted him to get help with his mental health.”
Starkie, who has 32 previous convictions for 56 offences, was subject to three separate community orders at the time of the offending, the court was told.
Representing the defendant, defence barrister Joshua Bowker said: “These offences were all committed within four minutes of each other.
“The defendant has no desire to resume the relationship.
“These are his first convictions for violence offences. In that extent, this behaviour is out of character.
“For a long period of time between 2012 and 2025, there was no offending.
“However, a spree of offending in 2025 has culminated in matters here. As a result of drug abuse and surrounding himself with negative peers, his mental health fell off a cliff and the vicious cycle continued.
“Drug use has been an issue. Taking crack cocaine with his fragile mental health makes things significantly worse, not better. He had used crack cocaine as a method of self-medicating.
“He has been in stable accommodation for over a decade. This is likely to be taken away from him. Upon his release, he will have to rely on the authorities to support him.
"He is doing his best to be in a position in prison not to reoffend.”
Recorder Emma Fisher deemed the breaches of the three community orders to be and Starkie’s ‘unenviable record’ to be ‘serious aggravating factors’.
As a result, she imposed an immediate 15-month jail term and imposed a five-year restraining order.
“Hopefully you can get back to where you were before this spree of offending,” Recorder Fisher told Starkie.
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