Prolific South Derbyshire criminal back in jail for vicious assault on …

A South Derbyshire criminal with more than 40 offences to his name has been sent back to jail for a vicious assault on his partner. Daniel Jollands then went after a passer-by who tried to help the victim, Derby Crown Court has heard.

A series of attacks saw Jollands put a pillow over her face as he tried to suffocate her. The court was told she 'thought she was going to die'.

The 36-year-old drug addict, who has a raft of previous convictions to his name, also pulled a clump of hair from her head, delivered an uppercut to her chin, kicked her leg and pulled her off a bed. And the woman who stopped her car and tried to get the defendant’s partner to safety has been awarded £500 from the Derbyshire High Sheriff’s purse for her bravery.

Jailing Jollands for two years and 10 months, Judge Jonathan Bennett said: “This was a very serious set of offences, particularly the second set because she was a vulnerable victim and this was all in a domestic context. She thought she was going to die, she had three-or-four minutes being suffocated by you, you were hyped up over some drugs and there were a number of unpleasant and violent other offences.

“The first set of offences saw a passer-by so concerned with what she saw, she drove her (the partner) away from the scene but things didn’t end there, oh no, you decided to follow their vehicle and that would have been extremely frightening.”

Gregor Purcell, prosecuting, said the first offence took place near Swadlincote on June 17, this year. He said Jollands and his partner were arguing in her car, which he was driving, before stopping, getting out and throwing the woman into some railings at the side of the country lane, DerbyshireLive ^[3] reports.

The prosecutor said the passer-by stopped her car and the victim ran to it and got in. Mr Purcell said: “She had blood on her face, the passer-by drove off but the defendant was driving behind them, overtook them, braked sharply forcing them to stop and got out of his car. She reversed the car at speed but reversed into a hedge.

“Fortunately a man in a van arrived and they drove to Swadlincote police station.” The prosecutor said after being arrested, questioned and bailed for those offences, Jollands, of Coronation Street, Overseal, committed the next set.

He said: ”On August 3, at a friend’s address in Swadlincote he delivered an uppercut to her chin, there was another incident where he kicked her leg and pulled her off the bed and then, on August 16, he shoved her head into a mattress grabbed the back of her neck tightly and put a pillow over her face for three-or-four minutes.”

Jollands pleaded guilty to charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, careless driving, controlling and coercive behaviour and the relatively new offence of suffocation. He has 42 offences to his name, Mr Purcell said.

Justin Ablott, mitigating, said his client had remained out of trouble for four years between 2019 and 2023 and during that time had come off drugs and had found employment as a porter for an auction house.

He said: “Mr Jollands is hugely upset with himself for allowing those four years to be cast aside and he knows his behaviour towards his partner was wholly unacceptable. His mother passed away in January and he had a knock on his prison cell door last week to say his brother had passed away, having been found dead in his flat.”

As well as the jail term, Judge Bennett also handed Jollands a three-year restraining order not to contact his partner or go to her address. He was also disqualified from driving for 21 months.

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