Man on steroids butted partner

30 June 2006

HOOKED on body building steroids, Robin Hicks attacked his partner with such ferocity that her brain was affected by a head-butt, and a kung fu kick left her doubled up in pain, a court was told.

"Through my own stupidity I have been a victim for nine years," Julie McDonald told police.

"I know that when he is arrested he and his family will be after me and I will need to go to a refuge."

Hicks, 31, of

Station Street

, Chatteris, appeared before Fenland magistrates on Wednesday, when he admitted assaulting Ms McDonald on two occasions.

Before the first attack, Hicks had drunk five or six pints of lager and between 10 and 15 double vodkas with Red Bull and was "as drunk as he could get", said John Nooijen, prosecuting.

Hicks grabbed his partner's shoulders, forced her on to the bed and head-butted her.

She suffered "incredible" pain and by the next morning her eye was swollen.

Ten days later her horrified GP advised her to get an X-ray and call the police.

She was told there was no fracture, but her brain had moved within her head because of the impact of the head butt.

On June 18 Hicks was drunk and Ms McDonald helped him pack his bags.

When handed a picture of his dead dog, Hicks delivered a kung fu kick to her stomach.

Ms McDonald kicked Hicks' car and threw a cup of tea at the vehicle.

Mitigating, Anita Waterman said Hicks felt regret and remorse and felt "desperately guilty".

"He has a problem with taking steroids. He feels they have caused a character change," she said.

"He tried to stop taking them but had withdrawal symptoms. He feels they are destroying his life."

She said there was not a history of violence in the relationship.

During the first incident Hicks was so drunk he fell on his partner, and on the second occasion he grabbed her round the stomach and picked her up, to stop her damaging his car.

The court committed him for sentence to Cambridge Crown Court.