Bridlington serial offender jailed for nearly three years after strangling ex-partner and 'horrific beating' of man

Joshua James Richardson, 22, from Bridlington, showed flagrant disregard for his banned-driver status, skipped court hearings and beat a man so badly he needed hospital treatment for a serious eye injury, York Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Timothy Jacobs said Richardson’s crime spree began on July 20, 2022, when his white Transit van was spotted by police in Town Street, Malton.

An officer pulled him over because he wasn’t wearing a seat belt and discovered that Richardson was a banned driver with no insurance.

Five days later, Richardson, while under investigation for the initial offence, was driving a black BMW which was stopped by police on Stoney Haggs Road, Seamer.

He was booked again for driving while disqualified.

Three days later, he went to his ex-partner’s home and snatched her phone before demanding to know whom she had been calling.

“She tried to retrieve the phone and he pushed her, causing her to fall back onto a sofa (and) bang her head,” said Mr Jacobs.

“The (victim) tried to push him towards the front door but he stood on her bare feet with boots on.”

Richardson then grabbed hold of her throat and strangled her twice.

When she tried to escape, he spun her around and pushed her against a wall.

Bizarrely, he then fell to his knees, grabbed her legs and began crying and apologised.

“He told her he would give her two grand if she didn’t tell police,” added Mr Jacobs.

The named victim suffered bruising and swelling to her foot and “multiple” bruises to her body, along with bruising and a red mark on her neck where she’d been strangled.

She said the attack had left her feeling “imprisoned” in her own home.

Richardson, of Olinda Road, was charged with intentional strangulation but denied the offence, only to be found guilty after trial.

On October 3 that year, he turned up in a van at the home of his ex-partner’s new boyfriend in Scarborough.

He was standing at the front door as he shouted up to the named victim: “Come out and sort things out.”

“The (victim) told him he had no intention of going outside but (Richardson) responded with threats that he would slam the doors if he didn’t,” said Mr Jacobs.

Richardson tried the front door which was locked, then went round the back of the property and barged into the house through the unlocked rear door.

When the victim came downstairs, Richardson was stood in the kitchen.

Richardson lunged at him and pushed him through the kitchen door into the hallway where he pinned him against a wall, punched him in the neck, causing “instant pain” to his Adam’s apple, and headbutted him in the nose which was dripping with blood.

The scuffle continued in the kitchen where Richardson punched the victim in the eye and cheekbone “with some force”.

He left the house promising to “come back tonight” and still shouting threats at the victim who required hospital treatment to have his eyebrow glued.

Richardson was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm of which he was found guilty in his absence at Scarborough Magistrates’ Court.

In November 2022 he was spotted driving a different white Transit van on the Seamer bypass in Scarborough.

On this occasion, he was stopped in the Morrison’s car park in Eastfield and arrested again for driving while disqualified after initially giving police a false name.

On April 2 last year, an officer on Hall Park Road, Hunmanby, spotted a different Transit van or tipper truck hauling a “large amount” of scrap metal, which he thought unusual given the time of night.

The vehicle was stopped and Richardson was booked again.

He ultimately admitted four counts of driving while disqualified and without insurance and appeared for sentence on January 22 for those offences, along with strangling and assaulting his ex-partner, ABH against the male victim and two counts of failing to surrender to court custody.

The court heard that Richardson’s seven previous convictions for 16 offences including wounding, using controlling and coercive behaviour in a relationship and previous driving-while-disqualified matters.

His solicitor advocate Graham Parking said Richardson had mental-health issues and was described by doctors as a “complex individual”.

Judge Simon Hickey described Richardson’s assaults on his ex-partner and the male victim as “revenge” attacks.

He noted that Richardson, as a banned driver, had been “crafty enough” to get someone to drop him off at her home and that of the male victim before assaulting them.

Richardson was jailed for two years and 10 months but will only serve half of that sentence behind bars, minus the time he had already spent on remand.

He was banned from driving for 41 months.