Derbyshire man jailed after slashing woman in head with knife and claiming she attacked him

Shane Cartledge, of Crich View, Newton, Alfreton, assaulted the woman during a disturbance at a property in Flintham Court, Mansfield. He slashed her across the cheek, head and shoulder with a kitchen knife.

Cartledge, 38, who was inside the property when his victim came to the front door, was arrested shortly after the incident on January 23 2020, but claimed it was he who had been attacked.

During a police interview, he claimed that his female victim had in fact come at him with the knife and had managed to get on top of him in the ensuing struggle.

Her injuries, he claimed, had come about by accident during the incident in the front garden.

When asked how his victim could have arrived at the scene with a knife that was later found to have been taken from an open kitchen drawer, Cartledge could not give an answer.

Cartledge maintained his denials all the way to a crown court trial but was found guilty by a jury of causing grievous bodily harm to his victim.

Appearing at Nottingham Crown Court on Friday, February 18, he was jailed for 11 years.

Detective Sergeant Neil Allsop, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “Cartledge is a violent bully who flew into a rage when his victim arrived at his doorstep after a long-running dispute.

“Before opening the door he armed himself with the knife he used to attack his far smaller female victim. In a perverse and cowardly attempt to blame his victim for what happened he then claimed – in defiance of all logic – that it was she who had attacked him.

“I am pleased that a jury saw through his frankly ridiculous lies and that he has now been handed a significant jail sentence, which I hope will provide some degree of comfort to his victim.

“She has shown enormous courage and dignity throughout these proceedings, even when she was forced to relive her ordeal in the witness box.”