A York window cleaner threatened to “rip a woman’s head off” and broke her jaw more than once in front of her partner, the city's crown court heard.

Daniel Anthony Banner, 35, had never seen the woman before he and his partner encountered the victim and her partner in a pub that evening, said Matthew Moore-Taylor, prosecuting. 

At the end of the prolonged assault, the woman was left with a jaw so broken she could only eat pureed food for six weeks and had been unable to work.

Mr Moore-Taylor played an eight-minute recording - from the phone of the victim's partner - of the incident in a cottage, during which, he said, Banner could be heard saying: "Watch me ..... rip her head off" and "I am going to smash your bird in front of you".

The woman could be heard screaming, said Mr Moore-Taylor. 

Banner and his partner were on a trip to Haworth in West Yorkshire when they encountered the other couple at the Mill Hey Brewing House on September 6, 2020. 

Following the incident, Banner was released under investigation and nine months later police found nearly three kilos of cannabis, enough to fetch £29,000 in street deals or supply one user for 32 years, in his then home in Cornlands Road, Acomb, said Mr Moore-Taylor.

It was the third time he had been convicted of an offence involving cannabis production or supply, York Crown Court heard.

Banner, now of Birch Close, Huntington, pleaded guilty to causing the woman grievous bodily harm, causing her partner actual bodily harm with a single punch and permitting the use of his premises for the supply of cannabis.

He was jailed for four years.

Defence barrister Charlotte Noddings said Banner’s actions were an “excess of self defence” and he had only had the drugs for 24 hours. He apologised to the victims.

But Judge Simon Hickey rejected that Banner’s attack was “over the top self defence” and said only a “trusted employee” of drug dealers would be allowed to handle such a large amount of cannabis.

Mr Moore-Taylor said  Banner’s partner invited the woman back to the cottage where the York couple were staying, to use a hot tub while the men had longer in the pub.

At some point, Banner’s partner was sick and the woman helped her clean up the mess.

When Banner and the woman’s partner returned, he was furious with the “mess" in the bathroom and the woman started to get dressed so she could leave.

Then Banner attacked her and her partner. 

The woman suffered injuries to her face and head besides the multiple jaw fractures and her partner had a bleeding nostril and other head injuries, said Mr Moore-Taylor.

In her personal statement she said she had been left permanently scarred and needed counselling to cope with the mental effects of the attack.

On July 31, 2021, police found nearly three kilos of cannabis at Banner’s then home in Cornlands Road, Acomb, said Mr Moore-Taylor.

Ms Noddings said Banner had looked after the drugs to pay off his own drug debt.

During the three years since his first arrest, he had been remanded in prison on a charge of which he was later formally acquitted.

“This has been a sobering experience and brought home the reality of prison life,” she said.

He had also struggled with his mental health and had tried to “stabilize” his life by setting up his own window cleaning business, employing three people, and working on his family life.