A mother left with these horrendous injuries by her partner who attacked her and her child is outraged after he walked free from court.
Brave Joanne Clinton, 32, suffered a broken nose, heavy bruising and was left part blind in one eye after the horror attack by Ricky Barton.
She tried to stop her violent partner attacking her family and was only saved when her child called police to say “he is trying to kill my mummy.”
The mother-of-four was trying to stop her partner, Barton, from carrying out a vicious assault on her 12-year-old daughter, Amy, after she saw him holding the youngster’s hair and repeatedly punching her in the head.
But when Joanne grabbed his shoulders to desperately try to stop the thug, he turned on her and violently began beating her.
The mum was only saved after one of her other children was able to phone the police, saying: “He is trying to kill my mummy.”
Now she has spoken of her devastation after the “monster” who attacked her and her children was spared jail.
Barton, 31, was given a suspended prison sentence at Hull Crown Court, East Yorks., on Friday.
Joanne, who has had to be rehomed following the brutal assault, said her children now suffer nightmares and the family are scared to leave their home.
She said: “When they told me what he got, I just broke down.
“I couldn’t stop crying. It doesn’t make sense how he only got that for hurting my kids the way he did. He is a monster.
“There is nothing I can do to stop their nightmares. Me and my children are scared to go out. We thought he was going to prison, and I thought I would be able to get my life back when he went.
“Now, I’m stuck. I’m determined not to let him win, but I do not know what to do. I wanted justice, and I have none.”
Barton, of Bransholme, Hull, admitted two common assaults on the children and assault occasioning actual bodily harm on his now ex-partner.
Joanne, who had been with Barton for a year, said she first heard her 12-year-old daughter screaming for help after the couple returned to her home in September.
“He was stood there holding onto her hair and punching her in the head,” she said.
“I ran in and grabbed his shoulders to swing him round so he couldn’t hit her anymore, but he kept trying to go back. I just have this image of him going back to Amy again and again.
“Every time I was trying to get her away, he kept punching me. He was just constantly punching. The next thing I remember is him trying to grab Amy over the banister by her hair, and he grabbed half of it out and trampled over one of my boys.
“I thought he was going to kill us. I didn’t see there was any way of getting out of there. There was only going to be one outcome.
“I don’t even know how we got through it.”
Joanne, who has three other children, Bradley, 12, Grace, seven, and Harry, five, said she is suffering from memory loss after the devastating attack last September.
She said: “I kept trying to ring the police but he kept smashing my phone away.
“One of the kids was able to get to it and said ‘he is trying to kill my Mummy’.
“My daughter says she just keeps seeing my face bruised and covered in blood whenever she closes her eyes.
“We are tired of being scared, and we even ended up in a refuge for two months after it happened.
“I still feel all alone and I don’t know what I’m supposed to say to my kids.
“Amy is only 12 years old and she shouldn’t have had to go through anything like that. It is so hard.”
Joanne said Barton, who had been drinking heavily, stood at the bottom of the stairs mocking the family after the attack, before chasing the children as they tried to escape to their father’s house in an adjoining street.
Barton was left with a fractured skull when their father later struck him over the head with a golf club.
Joanne said she wanted to tell her story to prevent it happening to others in the future.
She added: “I have always tried to protect my kids but failed them by ever letting this monster into my home.
“I just really don’t want anyone else to have to go through it. We are supposed to feel safe in our own home.”
