Mum recalls harrowing moment violent ex bit and headbutted her while she held their 10-month-old baby in her arms
Sarah Jackson, 42, from York, told how Jason Rhodes launched the vicious attack in December after a night out with friends
A MUM-OF-TWO has recalled the harrowing moment her violent ex bit and headbutted her while she held their 10-month-old baby in her arms.
Sarah Jackson, 42, from York, told how Jason Rhodes, 25, launched the vicious attack in December after a night out with friends.
In January this year Rhodes, formerly of New Earswick, was found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and jailed for two years and nine months.
Sarah explained: “Our relationship went in a cycle – first we’d argue, then he’d call me names and hit me, before apologising and buying me gifts.
“But after the final attack, something inside me clicked. I genuinely thought he was going to kill me.”
Rhodes and Sarah had been friends for two years before they began dating in March 2015.
“He asked me for a drink one day and we just hit it off," she recalled.
“For the first few months, he was so charming and he treated me like a princess.
“He was caring and thoughtful – everything I’d been looking for in a man.”
Three months into their relationship, Sarah fell pregnant.
In February 2016, Sarah gave birth to their daughter Emma*.
But according to Sarah, just days after she'd returned home with their new baby, Rhodes became snappy and irritable.
She said: “Emma was crying a lot, even for a newborn baby, and it wound Jason up.
“It turned into an argument and Jason pushed me onto the bed.
“I told him he needed to be careful – I’d just had a baby, so I could haemorrhage.
“He apologised, and the next day he even bought me flowers to show me he was sorry.”
When Emma was three weeks old, Sarah took her to the GP, who diagnosed her with a milk allergy.
The doctor prescribed her a special formula and Emma calmed down, but Rhodes then started picking other arguments instead.
Sarah said: “He’d complain that I was giving Emma all my attention. He didn’t seem to understand that I was worried – all my energy went on her.”
Two months later, Rhodes started going on nights out, leaving Sarah to care for their child alone.
Desperate to rescue their relationship, Sarah suggested they hired a babysitter and the couple went on a date night together.
She said: “I soon realised it was a bad idea. When Jason was drunk, he turned really nasty.
“He started accusing me of sleeping around – even though I’d been stuck in the house with his daughter while he was out into the early hours.
“I was scared of what he’d do if he was provoked, so I kept quiet.”
In October 2016, Rhodes revealed to Sarah that he’d been seeing other women.
Sarah said: “I immediately told him it was over, and took Emma for a walk by the river to get out of the house.
“But Jason followed me and attacked me, wrapping his hands around my neck until I couldn’t breathe.
“He was screaming that I couldn’t take his daughter away from him.”
Luckily, a passer-by intervened and Jason ran away.
But later that day, a police officer turned up at Sarah’s house and arrested Rhodes.
Sarah said: “The woman who intervened must have called the police.
“Before he was taken away, Jason ordered me to tell them he hadn’t done anything.
“He was released on bail the next day and, scared of what he might do, I kept quiet.”
For the next three months, Sarah felt like she was walking on eggshells.
On December 28 last year, after spending Christmas together, Rhodes told Sarah he was going out for the day with friends.
But when he wasn’t back by dinner time, Sarah called him, worried.
She said: “He was drunk and started shouting that he was going to get with a girl he’d met at a bar.
“I told him not to bother coming home, but when I hung up, I felt sick with nerves.”
Later that night, Sarah heard Rhodes shouting from the top of the road.
She added: “He was calling me a slag, loud enough for the whole street to hear.
“I called the police, grabbed Emma, and took her into my other daughter's room.
"“I heard the door crash open. He ran upstairs and charged towards me, biting my arm until it drew blood.
“I managed to fight him off, but he ran at me again and headbutted me."
Dazed, Sarah saw blood on her baby daughters’ clothes and realised it was coming from her own head.
But before Rhodes had time to attack again, the police arrived. The phone operator had heard everything.
Sarah said: “Jason tried to escape through a window but the police caught him and he was arrested.
“I was taken to hospital and told I needed stitches for the wound over my eye."
Sentencing Rhodes, Judge Andrew Stubbs QC said: ‘There is absolutely no doubt that she was petrified about what you were going to do.
"This was undeniably a cowardly and shameful assault which you committed against a defenceless woman – who, at the time you were savagely beating her, had your child and her child in her arms."
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Though Rhodes is now in prison, Sarah is still coming to terms with the attacks.
She said: “I’m still dealing with what happened, but I’ve realised that it was a blessing in disguise that it finished how it did.
“If he hadn’t been locked away, he could have killed me.
“No matter how scared you are, you must tell somebody – there is always a way out.”
*Names have been changed.
In July we told how a girlfriend, 23, was terrorised by her violent lover who stuffed LOCUSTS down her trousers, put a snake on her face, forced her to eat to socks and banned her from seeing dying mum.
Earlier this year we reported how a pregnant teen relived the petrifying moment her violent boyfriend attacked her with a knife… and she miscarried two weeks later.