A former GB Olympic swimmer told his fiancée to kill herself before dragging her away from the edge of their 12th floor flat balcony with so much force that she fractured her skull.
James Disney-May, 30, who was part of the 100m freestyle relay team at the London Olympics in 2012, was arguing with Eleanor Cooke over a £9,000 rent bill for their £1million apartment.
The former Olympian caused the injuries as he pulled her over a glass balcony railing, Kingston Crown Court heard.
She is believed to have hit her head on the floor during the incident on July 1 this year, causing multiple skull fractures and two bleeds on the brain.
The incident, which took place at the flat where the pair lived in the luxurious Battersea Power Station development in south London, left her with a permanent loss of hearing in her right ear.
She also suffered bruising on her face, neck and chin.
Disney-May, who attended the private school Millfield in Somerset, admitted GBH in November.
He was handed a 21-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months at a sentencing hearing this morning, with a four-month tagged curfew.
It means he will be released from prison, where he has been on remand for the last six months.
The court heard that, in the months before the attack, the former swimmer was going out most nights drinking and taking drugs – and feared losing his “very high-paying job in the city”.
Prosecutor James Lofthouse said Disney-May had a “high opinion of himself” and that, while the relationship was “largely loving”, he was “belittling” towards Cooke.
The court heard he would threaten to leave his partner, calling her “lazy, stupid, disgusting and useless” as well as a “problem woman”
Lofthouse said the pair had been out for drinks and dinner on July 1 and returned to their flat, owned by Cooke’s parents, at around 11.30 pm.
Original Article
Another spoiled little boy.