Corby man who beat pregnant partner back behind bars after assaulting two more people

Two more people have fallen victim to a Corby man who beat his pregnant partner so badly that she suffered a haematoma in her skull.

After being released from prison where he had served only part of an 18 month sentence for a vicious series of attacks on his pregnant partner, Craig Kyle went on to beat two more people last month, a court has heard.

Kyle, appeared before magistrates earlier this week to face assault charges against a man and a woman in Corby that took place on August 25.

The 36-year-old of The Brontes, Corby, pleaded guilty to both charges at Northampton magistrates’ court. Because of his history of violence, JPs remanded him in custody and adjourned the case to today (Friday, September 3) in order to determine the most appropriate way of dealing with sentencing.

At the end of March this year, Kyle had been sentenced to 18 months in prison for a vicious attack on his former partner in Cannock Road, Corby. He was ordered to serve half of that sentence in custody, including time already served on remand, and the remainder on licence in the community.

He had been released from prison in the intervening period but went on to carry out these two further assaults just five months later.

The offence for which he was sent to prison was a charge of assault against a pregnant woman. Northampton Crown Court heard that he attacked the woman in his home over several days in May 2020, leaving her with a haematoma in her skull and bruised all over her body. A judge said that it was a 'miracle' he didn't harm his unborn child.

He pushed his thumb into her neck so that she couldn't breathe, dragged her from a bed by her ankles so she hit her head on the floor and bashed her head against a wall.

Kyle had begun to beat her in March last year after the pair moved in together in Corby. But he was soon charged with three counts of assault and she left the home.

But on May 17 last year, when she was 18 weeks pregnant with his child and while he was still on bail for those three assaults, she moved back in with him. The following day, Kyle began drinking heavily. After taking offence to something she had said he pushed her head back and throttled her, pushing his thumb into her windpipe.

In the early hours of the morning he lunged for her and repeatedly strangled her, hit her against the bedside cabinet and pulled her hair.

When she went to bed he pulled her by her ankles so her head hit the floor then knelt on her until she passed out. When she got back into bed, he returned into the room and spat on her and hit her head against the wall.

In a victim personal statement read to the court at March’s hearing, the woman said that she 'did not recognise the man he had become.'

"I can only describe him as a monster," she said.

In mitigation, Kyle's barrister Jonathan Woodcock asked Her Honour Judge Adrienne Lucking not to jail his client. He said he had no previous record of assaulting other partners and that he had otherwise been described as a 'thoroughly decent person'.

"This is not ordinarily a man who has a history of violence," he said.

"He doesn't seek to minimise what he did to the victim. He doesn't have disrespect for women. This was an exceptionally bad period for both of them.

"There were no stitches required. It wasn't necessary to admit her to hospital.

"He's otherwise led a hard-working, decent life. There's no risk to anyone else."

Kyle was on bail for the three previous assaults when this incident took place. He was later jailed for 16 weeks for those offences and served that sentence last summer.