Man Throws Girlfriend Down The Stairs Because His Dinner Wasn’t Ready

A 16-stone trucker left his girlfriend needing surgery after bundling her down the stairs in a row over having to cook his own dinner.

Logan Welch, 34, was so angry when his tea was not on the table when he came back from a long day behind the wheel that he started an argument that rumbled on all through the evening.

The row ended with victim Chantelle Pearson fleeing her home in Ipplepen, near Newton Abbot, and seeking refuge with neighbours after falling down the stairs.

She suffered a knee cartilage injury which needed keyhole surgery to repair and left her needing crutches for three months, Exeter Crown Court was told.

Welch, who now lives in Exeter, admitted causing actual bodily harm and was jailed for nine months, suspended for two years, and ordered to pay £1,500 compensation and £1,000 costs.

Recorder Mr James Freeman also made a restraining order banning him from any contact with the victim for five years.

He told him: ‘There was an argument which ended up with you struggling with the victim at the top of the stairs, which is a dangerous place to have an argument.

‘She fell to the bottom and twisted her right knee and she fled the house, coming back with the neighbours. It seems you calmed down and left her house the next day for good.’

Mr Joss Ticehurst, prosecuting, said the incident happened in May of last year and started when Welch came home from work.

He said: ‘He is a long distance lorry driver and was upset by the domestic situation and finding that his dinner was not ready.’

He said the row simmered for the rest of the evening and flared up when the victim was in the bath and he went in and tipped her washbag into the water.

A further argument ensued which Miss Pearson said included him pushing her several times and causing her to fall down the stairs.

Mr Andrew Maitland, defending, said Welch did not accept he pushed her but took responsibility for the fall and the injuries.

He said the incident was caused not just by him having to cook his own dinner but by Welch believing his partner had not kept a promise to drink less and spend more time on domestic duties.

He said they had run up debts of around £1,500 and he had agreed to work longer hours but felt she was not keeping her side of the bargain.