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A Perth woman who fled the country with her children after a horrific domestic violence assault by her partner has been left reeling after he was given a “pitiful” sentence over the attack that forced her to uproot her life.
Guy Cramp was charged after he bashed the mother of his newborn son at her home in Stratton in November last year.
At the time, he had been out of prison for five days, having being jailed for violently assaulting a taxi driver over a $20 fare.
Chloe Wright had been in a relationship with Cramp, with whom she shares a child, for 18 months when she told him she was going out for the evening with a friend.
Cramp, 33, who had twice previously been jailed for violently assaulting two previous partners and been convicted for assaulting his own parents, lashed out at Wright “out of jealousy”, punching her in the face as she held their son while sitting on the sofa.
That was the extent of the information that police prosecutors gave to Magistrate Paul Lyons ahead of Cramp’s sentencing on Tuesday.
The full extent of a horrifying and protracted assault that continued outside Wright’s home and captured by her CCTV cameras was never presented to the court.
“I have not been given the CCTV footage and I have not seen it,” Lyons said on Tuesday.
Why he was not given the confronting footage to view was not made clear, but prosecutors previously told the court they did not know the extent of Wright’s injuries, while only one small aspect of the assault was outlined.
Were it not for her victim impact statement, the court would have been given no knowledge of the extent of Cramp’s attack that resulted in a broken nose and cheekbone, and a lengthy wait for surgery to repair the damage.
Wright was also placed into protection by the Department of Communities with her children when Cramp was released on bail in February to complete a domestic violence offenders’ program.
He failed to participate in even half of the court-ordered sessions, and later cut off his ankle monitoring bracelet and fled from police, evading capture for 12 hours and sending Wright into a terrifying lockdown.
“I have to have a rhinoplasty and a septoplasty, and I’m on the wait list at Royal Perth [Hospital] – none of that was brought up by the prosecution,” Wright said outside court on Tuesday.
“It seemed because I wasn’t stabbed or permanently deformed that I didn’t matter, and what I’ve done doesn’t matter, and I’ve had to change everything in my life. It’s so, it’s so wrong.
“Maybe I just shouldn’t have come forward. What was the point?”
Wright released the footage to the media earlier this year to raise awareness of how domestic violence perpetrators are dealt with by the courts. The vision, which shows Cramp assaulting Wright while holding their newborn son, went viral.
“The prosecution should have made sure that that judge was able to see that footage,” she said.
“Australia has seen that footage. Why has the [magistrate] not seen that footage?”
Cramp was sentenced to 15 months in prison for the assault on Wright, and eight months for cutting off his ankle monitoring bracelet.
He was made eligible for parole, which means he could be released in March next year due to time already served.
He was also placed on the serial domestic violence register.
Wright called the sentence “pitiful” and plans to lodge a formal complaint with WA Police and lobby for an appeal.
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