Andrew Nuttall was jailed for two and a half years
Andrew Nuttall(Image: Greater Manchester Police)
A ‘coward’ dragged a woman from his car by her hair then repeatedly punched her in the face.
Andrew Nuttall, 36, launched the brutal attack on the woman after the pair had been for a night out in Salford. He was giving her a lift home when an argument broke out.
While she begged him not to leave her alone in the middle of nowhere at 2.30am, he told her: “I’ll f***ing drag you out”, before attacking her.
She was left with a severely swollen black eye, as well as bruising to her cheek and jaw.
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Jailing him for two-and-a-half years, Recorder Michael Hayton KC said he behaved in an ‘incomprehensible’ way.
“It is abundantly clear to me that you felt that you were not getting the attention you felt you deserved. You beat her and beat her and beat her,” he said.
“For any man to raise a hand to a woman is cowardly behaviour. You are a coward. You are a bully. Your behaviour is shameful and criminal to a severe degree.”
In early September 2021, the two met on a dating app, and had been speaking for a few days when they arranged to meet for drinks, but it didn’t happen.
On September 17, the woman arranged to meet up with some friends at a club in Salford, and invited Nuttall along.
Towards the end of the night, she invited the group back to her house to continue partying. Her friends went in one car, and she said she would ‘jump in’ with Nuttall.
However, things took a turn when he couldn’t find his car, with the pair hunting for the vehicle for around twenty to thirty minutes, only for them to find it parked near to the club they had been at.
“The complainant was similarly frustrated because the battery was going on her telephone,” said prosecutor Craig McGregor.
“By this time it was around 2:30am and as they got back to the car the defendant said to the complainant: “You can f***** ring your mate up to come and collect you, I’m going”.
“She replied: “Hang on you’re about to leave a girl alone at 2:30 in the morning without a phone being charged.”
He allowed her to charge her phone in his car and agreed to drive her closer to where her friend could pick her up. As an argument developed, she told him: “What kind of person would leave a girl, what kind of person does that”, to which he became angry and called her ‘slag’.
Around 15 minutes later he pulled over on Worsley Road before shouting at her to ‘get the f*** out of the car’.
The woman said she wasn’t getting out of the car until her friend collected her, who she had called and left on loudspeaker, and begged Nuttall: “Please don’t throw me out the car”.
Her friend told her that she should get out of the car, before Nuttall said: “I’ll f***ing drag you out.”
He yanked the passenger door open, threw her belongings into a layby, then grabbed her left arm and leg, and then her hair, to forcefully drag her from the car, Manchester Crown Court heard.
“After 10 or 20 seconds he eventually managed to pull her out of the car and was “ragging” her about, which she was kicking and screaming trying to get him off her,” said Mr McGregor.
“The complainant screamed: “Who the f*** do you think you are” and it’s at that point he then punched her to the left side of the face and head several times causing her to drop to the floor.”
She fell to the ground and was hit again. He then fled, with the woman’s friend picking her up around five minutes later and taking her to hospital.
She was left with numerous injuries including bruising, blood damage on her eyeball from a haemorrhage, a black eye, a swollen cheek and jaw.
Nuttall, of Lloyd Street South, Fallowfield, was arrested and interviewed, claiming he was ‘vexed’ and that he acted in ‘self defence’ after the woman had hit him first. He has since ‘resiled’ from the account, and pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm in September this year, after multiple adjourned trial dates.
In a statement, the woman said she has experienced continual stress, frustration, anxiety and trauma.
She said she was frustrated by the delays in bringing the case to court, and was ‘frustrated’ by Greater Manchester Police, as it had taken them ‘several weeks’ to arrest Nuttal despite having his name and number.
“No woman deserves to be dragged out of a car beaten and left in the early hours of the morning,” she added.
Gwen Henshaw, defending, said Nuttall was ‘mortified’ by his actions, and had ‘buried his head in the sand’. He had no previous convictions.
“It represented a low point in his life,” she said.
The barrister said he would often miss school as a child due to domestic violence at home.
“The bitter irony is that he is in court for the assault of a woman. These two were shouting at each other, arguing in the street. His response to that was wholly unacceptable and he accepts that,” she added.
“He bears no ill will to the complainant and can understand why she is traumatised by what happened.