Company boss smashed wife's head through a window in a drunken rage after she refused to clean up his sick following night out - The Leamington Observer

Company boss smashed wife's head through a window in a drunken rage after she refused to clean up his sick following night out

Leamington Editorial 18th Feb, 2021   0

A COMPANY boss smashed his wife’s head through a window in a drunken rage after she refused to clean up his sick at their home following a night out.

When he was arrested Shaun McCallion, who had a previous conviction for assaulting her, told the police: “She knows I’m not the sort of person to shout at.”

As a result of the attack his wife Victoria suffered a gash to her forehead which went down to the bone and another to her arm which she had put up to try to protect her face.

But McCallion, 44, of Kings Lane, Snitterfield, initially denied wounding her, claiming it was an accident, before later changing his plea to guilty.




At Coventry Crown Court McCallion – the boss of a Solihull-based construction company – was jailed for 18 months after a judge said it was too serious to suspend the sentence.

As he was led from the dock to start his sentence, his wife, who the court heard has stood by him, assured him: “Everything’s going to be fine.”


And she loudly complained to the judge: “This is not going to help anyone.  Why is no-one listening to me?”

Prosecutor Christopher O’Gorman said McCallion and his wife had three children and had been in a relationship for 12 years.

Last February they had been out with friends, and when they got home she was tipsy, but he was drunk.

She went to bed, but ten minutes later she heard him being sick and calling for her help, and when she went to see what was wrong she saw he had been sick on the floor, and asked him: “What do you expect me to do about it?”

He flew into a rage, wrenching the seat off the toilet and trying to pull the door of its hinges.

Victoria tried to calm him down, but there was a struggle which moved into the hallway where there was an internal window.

“At that point she received an injury to her forehead and right elbow as a result of being pushed into the window, which smashed on impact,” said Mr O’Gorman.

Judge Andrew Lockhart QC interjected: “This accused put his hand to the back of her head and pushed it hard.”

As a result, Victoria had a deep wound to her forehead which exposed the bone of her skull, and the judge said it was ‘miraculous’ she had not been left with a permanent visible scar.

Victoria called for an ambulance and the police also arrived.

On the way to the police station after his arrest, McCallion remarked: “She knows I’m not the sort of person to shout at. There are two sides to any story.”

He said she had become angry when she slipped on some of his sick, and claimed as they argued she slipped and fell into the window by accident.

Mr O’Gorman added that McCallion had previous convictions for excess alcohol in 2006 and in 2016 for battery when, after attending a wedding they returned to their hotel room where he kicked and punched her and banged her head against the wall.

Lucy Tapper, defending, said the relationship was not characterised by violence, but that McCallion had been ‘struggling for longer than he has realised’ with alcohol and the stress of running his business, which she said would fold if he was jailed.

“He is heartbroken at what he did to the woman he loves. They have three children who he has been kept away from [as a bail condition] for the last year. This is a close, loving family who want to be back together.”

Jailing McCallion, Judge Lockhart told him: “Mrs McCallion is here.  She is supportive of you. She has been inconsistent in her account and has said it was an accident.  It was not an accident.

“Remorse is urged on me. The time for remorse was for you to come to the court and plead guilty at the first opportunity, but you did not, and you made an application to dismiss it.

“I am afraid there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that appropriate punishment can only be achieved by a sentence which is immediate.”

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