A JUDGE has told a defendant his mental health issues do not reduce his culpability for a brutal assault on his ex-partner.

Richard Byford was jailed for 13-and-a-half months on Wednesday after he admitted one charge of grievous bodily harm.

Judge Chris Morgan told Byford that his mental health history was not serious enough to mar his judgement and that the assault was not spontaneous, as the defence had claimed.

He was also sceptical of Byford’s account he could not remember the incident.

He said: “The event can’t be described as spontaneous – it came at the end of a protracted domestic argument. There is little in what I’ve read that shows genuine remorse.”

Addressing Byford’s defence about his mental health, he said: “You have seen your doctor in moments of crisis – in my judgment, those matters weren’t the cause of what occurred in June 2021.

“Your mental health does not reduce your culpability in this case.”