Chesterfield crash driver kicked partner and spat in her face while “anxious” over looming jail

Declan Webster, 33, assaulted the mother of his child twice and wreaked destruction in her home while on bail for a booze-fuelled race with pals in the town which ended when he ploughed into a lorry at Whittington Moor roundabout.

This week he was jailed for 16 months for the “reckless” stunt - along with co-defendants Michael and Robert Bowers who were also drunk and speeding in convoy with him.

However Chesterfield Magistrates Court heard on Thursday that Webster - “angry with everyone around him” at the time - damaged “people and things” as the stress of impending jail time took its toll.

In July 2021 - nearly a year after the crash - he kicked his partner and spat in her face, publicly assaulted his sister as she held her six-month old child and smashed up his partner’s home.

Webster’s solicitor Denney Lau mitigated for his client over the assaults at Chesterfield Magistrates Court on Thursday - the day after he was jailed for 16 months at Derby Crown Court.

He said: “Ordinarily he is a family man who works and provides for his family.

“But quite clearly the starting point is the matter that has now been sentenced at the Crown Court.

“He knew the likelihood was he would receive a custodial sentence - that matter was ongoing for months.

“During that time he was frustrated, anxious and accepts he was angry at everyone around him - he accepts he damaged people and things.”

Mr Lau said Webster - who lost his partner, his job and had not been able to see his son while in custody - had now “fallen right to the bottom of his life”.

Prosecutor Lynn Bickley described how between July 13 and 14 last year Webster had returned home “aggressive” and during a row with his partner brandished a metal bar and “kicked” her.

While, on July 23 during another argument he spat in her face at a hotel after a family day out at Legoland celebrating his son’s birthday.

The following day, during his father’s 60th birthday party at Chesterfield’s Riverside Club, the defendant up-ended a table as the row continued.

Staff at the pub said they saw Webster punch his sister while she held her baby - though the defendant admitted assault on the basis that he pushed his sister and didn’t punch her.

Later that night Webster wrecked his other half’s home - smashing a mirror, destroying clothes, smashing makeup and smearing it on walls.

The court heard he also destroyed two wardrobes and left dents in walls - smashing multiple crockery in the kitchen.

Webster, of Spital Lane, Chesterfield, admitted three counts of assault and criminal damage.

He was jailed for 20 weeks to run concurrently with the 16-month jailed term he was handed at Derby Crown Court for dangerous driving.

He was also handed a two-year restraining order and made to pay £490 compensation to his former partner.

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