Crime
Facebook ‘friend’ launches broken bottle attack on Fenland woman
A man attacked a Fenland woman he had met just hours beforehand with a broken bottle after chatting on social media and travelling to her home.
Thomas Corcoran, 31, had only been speaking to the woman for a few hours before the attack.
The victim, in her 30s, was sent a Facebook friend request from Corcoran on 6 August last year and she decided to accept and talk to him due to feeling upset.
The pair began flirting and talking about Corcoran, who lived in London at the time, travelling some distance to visit her.
The woman believed he was joking, but soon Corcoran sent her videos of him on the way to her home.
He arrived at about 9.30pm and the pair started drinking, but things soon turned sour, and Corcoran refused to leave the house.
The woman called 999 but this triggered Corcoran turning violent.
He smashed a bottle of beer against a wall before stabbing her in the neck and arm using the broken bottle.
While she was on the floor, he also kicked her to the head.
Officers arrived and Corcoran initially claimed he lived at the house. However, he then refused to cooperate and was arrested.
Police made their way inside where they found the woman covered in blood. She was taken to hospital but was not seriously injured.
In police interview Corcoran gave a written statement which denied the assault.
Thomas Corcoran, of Milliners Way, Luton, pleaded guilty on 14 October and was sentenced at Peterborough Crown Court on Monday (21 November).
He claimed he had left the house to call police as the woman had turned violent herself, but officers could find no record of this call. He then answered “no comment” to most other questions.
He was later served a postal requisition charging him with assault occasioning grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent.
Corcoran, of Milliners Way, Luton, pleaded guilty on 14 October and was sentenced at Peterborough Crown Court on Monday (21 November).
He was ordered to serve one year and six months in prison and handed a five-year restraining order preventing him from contacting the victim.
DC Chris Goodman, who investigated, said: “This was a particularly nasty attack on a woman in her own home, where she should have felt safest.
“Corcoran’s behaviour was appalling, and no-one deserves to be treated in this way.”
