A window cleaner who was hailed a hero after he rushed to save children in the Southport knife attack has appeared in court for assaulting his pregnant partner.
Joel Verite, 26, was on his lunch break when he rushed to the attack at the Taylor Swift-themed dance and came face-to-face with evil killer Axel Rudakubana.
Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were killed in the brutal slayings with eight other children and two adults also injured.
The fitness trainer, 27, who is believed to have been suffering from PTSD following the attack, assaulted his girlfriend in front of his baby, Liverpool Crown Court heard today.
Sarah McInerney, representing the Crown Prosecution Service, told the court that Verite had been in an ‘on-off’ relationship with Freya Aughton-Rimmer for around a year.
On October 18, they had an argument after Verite had been cropped out of an image, where he then followed the victim into the kitchen.
While Ms Aughton-Rimmer fed her first-born child Weetabix, the 27-year-old asked if she was in a mood, the court heard.
The defendant then began to shout and swear, before hitting the bowl out of the victim’s hands, with the contents spilling ‘up the wall’, Ms McInerney said.
Ms Aughton-Rimmer requested he leave the property, however Verite followed her, asking if he could see his child.
When he was told no, he carried on following the victim upstairs, where he pushed her in the back and she fell.
Following the incident, Ms Aughton-Rimmer fled upstairs and called the window cleaner’s mother to come and get him.
The judge told Verite: ‘I would have thought going through the dreadful experiences you had would make you less likely to use violence.’
Verite admitted to common assault and criminal damage but denied assault by beating, the Liverpool Echo reported.
At trial, the crown accepted Verite’s actions were reckless and he did not intend to harm the victim.
Ms McInerney told the court the offences were aggravated by the fact it occurred in the presence of a child, in a domestic context and that the victim was pregnant.
Verite, received an 18 months suspended sentence for criminal damage, common assault and two counts of assault by beating.
He was also ordered to pay £504 in court costs as well as to carry out 25 days of rehabilitation and 180 hours of unpaid work.