A woman who went out with her partner was left injured and bruised for weeks after he "football headbutted" her in the middle of a pub.
In the middle of the crowded venue Lauren Queeley's then-boyfriend Jonathan Landry headbutted her so hard that she heard a crunch and sustained a black eye. After bravely reporting her ordeal to the police, who described it as a "football headbutt", she was disgusted to learn that she wasn't the first woman Landry laid his hands on.
Lauren, 33, has bravely decided to share her story, as well as CCTV footage of the assault, to encourage people to exercise their right to use Clare's Law. She told WalesOnline: "To me Clare's Law is probably one of the best things that has ever come out for the safety of men and women. They will never outright tell you they are abusive or violent. I will never, ever enter a relationship again without doing Clare's Law."
Describing how her relationship started with Landry, now 34, she said: "We met in the beginning of March 2023. It was like a whirlwind it went really fast. We had been speaking in February, we met around March 10, and by March 19 we were official."
Lauren explained that at the time she was in a vulnerable emotional state. With hindsight she believes Landry sensed this and told her what she wanted to hear in order to gain her trust.
She said: "He would compliment how I looked and my clothes, which is something I craved from a partner. He couldn't do enough for me. The first time we met I laid all my cards on the table about my past traumas and vulnerabilities. It was as though he knew exactly what to say to get into my heart and head.
"He would tell me similar things had happened to him so that we had those things in common. That instantly made me feel a deeper connection that he must understand how I'm feeling. I don't know whether those things were fabricated or not."
Lauren said gradually over the next few months she noticed that this behaviour intensified and took a more sinister turn. "He was good at saying things that would make him seem like a catch, that I was lucky to be with him. For example telling me that someone else had asked for his number or that another woman was flirting with him."
"He would say to me during arguments: 'Do you know how lucky you are to have me?' and: 'If I wasn't with you I could go out and get anyone I wanted'."
Several months into the relationship Lauren said Landry began drinking more, which would result in arguments. During these interactions Lauren said he would become verbally and physically abusive towards her.
She said: "We would both enjoy going to the pub on weekends but when he quit his job he started drinking during the week. I was working full-time so I wasn't joining him."
"Every time he got really drunk he would slap me and push me and he would say things that he knew would wind me up such as calling me the C-word and 'rat' and then he would go up to bed. It was awful. About six months in I remember thinking: 'I am so unhappy'. I had lost so much weight and he had put a barrier between me and my family members."
Lauren said although she did not feel generally happy during the time they were together the thought of leaving a volatile relationship felt daunting. She said this was especially the case as Landry would pull out all the stops to apologise and promise it would never happen again as well as convincing her his behaviour wasn't that bad.
Lauren said the final straw came during the night between Friday, March 29, and March 30 this year a year after they first met. It came following what should have been an enjoyable trip to the pub. Describing the events of that day she said: "We were at the Beachcomber pub in Porthcawl. We had met in a previous pub with my friends and he had kept his back to me the whole time. He wouldn't speak to me or my friends.
"After my friends left we went to the Beachcomber and we had been in there for about an hour before he disappeared for 45 minutes. When he came back in I asked him where he had been. He called me a psycho."
"He was sitting on a chair and because it was loud I had to lean into him to hear what he was saying and then his whole face suddenly changed, his eyes changed, and he headbutted me. How I didn't get knocked out I don't know. I have blocked most of the incident out but I can remember a crunching noise when he headbutted me. The pain was horrific. After it happened he walked away like nothing had happened."
Lauren said instantly her face began to swell before she developed a black eye and bruising all over the right side of her face which lasted for five weeks. Following the incident Lauren said a friend walked her home where they found Landry. She said he was verbally abusive to her and wanted to go inside her house. Already in pain and refusing to take any chances she called the police.
"When the police looked at the CCTV luckily the Beachcomber is covered in CCTV they had it from all angles," she said. "When the police came out to interview me they described it as a 'football headbutt'. I have no idea how nobody else saw it the pub was busy but we were in a quiet area."
She said her injuries were so bad that she had to attend hospital. "I went to AandE because my face was so swollen I couldn't open my mouth properly," she said. "I couldn't eat or drink. I could hardly speak."
"I was continuously sick and I had all the signs of concussion. When I went for an X-ray I was convinced my eye socket was broken because it was so swollen and painful."
Lauren said it took a lot of strength to press charges against Landry who had convinced her so many times before that he was a good guy with her best interests at heart. Although police had enough evidence to go ahead and charge him she said it took her some time before she felt comfortable to open up to officers.
On October 8 Landry, of Heol Medw, Swansea, was sentenced at Swansea Magistrates' Court for one count of actual bodily harm.
Judge Murphy cited that Landry has nine convictions for 14 offences including an assault on a previous partner which resulted in a community order shortly before he met Lauren. She sentenced him to 16 weeks in prison and issued a restraining order which will prevent him from contacting Lauren for the next 24 months.
Lauren said she didn't learn about the full extent of Landry's criminal past until after the incident happened.
