Spared jail: magician who hit girlfriend with champagne bottle in row over texting

Assaults: Marcus Lewis outside court
Tony Palmer
Tony Palmer19 April 2017
WEST END FINAL

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A magician who hit his girlfriend with a champagne bottle after a row over texting her friends too much has been spared jail.

Marcus Lewis, 30, left partner Catherine Mallett, 26, in “absolute agony” after striking her on the arm at the flat they shared in Shepherd’s Bush.

The professional magician, who specialises in close-up tricks and hypnosis, attacked her again four days later during another row, and then ate the police letter sent about the earlier assault, Hammersmith magistrates heard.

The couple fell out in July last year when Lewis told his girlfriend-of-eight-months that she spent too long on her phone.

She said: “He did not like me messaging my friends and he had a message from his ex-girlfriend so we had a row about double standards.”

Ms Mallett said she asked Lewis to leave the flat in Frithville Gardens, but he returned and then locked her out.

When she forced her way inside, Lewis “pushed me onto the sofa and got on top of me and pinned me down and with a clenched fist threatened to punch me,” she said.

Ms Mallett said she smashed a wine glass against the wall and kicked a bin bag in frustration, sending rubbish including the champagne bottle spilling out on to the floor.

Lewis then snatched her phone which had fallen out of her pocket, and she threatened to throw his headphones out of a window if he did not give it back.

“He picked the champagne bottle from the floor and hit my elbow with it and I was rolling around the floor in absolute agony,” she said.

Lewis then told her: “You’re faking, I didn’t hit you that hard” and began filming his girlfriend on her own phone.

Ms Mallett was treated in hospital for a suspected broken arm and said the attack on July 14 left her feeling “ashamed and embarrassed”.

“I lost a lot of sleep over this and feel the quality of my life has gone down,” she said.

The court also heard four days after the attack Lewis threatened to smash Ms Mallett’s laptop when she was not talking to him.

She said he “jumped on top of me” and “clawed the paper out of my hand that had the crime number”.

“He got the piece of paper out of my hand and ate it and I left and called the police.”

Lewis denied two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm but was found guilty following a trial.

Magistrate Catharine Seddon sentenced him to 12 weeks in prison suspended for 18 months, and ordered him to attend a 40-day rehab programme.

He was also ordered to pay £735 in court costs and fees and was banned from contacting Ms Mallett.

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