He tore up his partner's passport to stop her leaving the country - Mansfield

A Lithuanian man tore up his partner's passport in a bid to stop her leaving the country with their three-year-old son, a Mansfield court heard.
Mansfield Magistrates Court.Mansfield Magistrates Court.
Mansfield Magistrates Court.

Andrejus Askabovius told the woman she was not to go anywhere, after she mentioned that she had booked time off work and planned to buy plane tickets, on March 19.

“The next morning she put her son’s passport and birth certificate in her handbag,” said prosecutor Kate Hartley.

When he saw this, he grabbed the bag and took it into the kitchen where he ripped out the photo pages from her passport and their son’s.

Sarah Neale, mitigating, said their relationship had recently hit difficulties and his partner had “made reference to travelling to Lithuania”.

BUt the conversation changed as “to whether she will return with the child or stay in Lithuania”, and on March 20, she said Askabovius panicked.

Askabovius, 32, of Wood Street, Mansfield, admitted criminal damage when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Wednesday.

District judge Jonathan Taaffe said: “This is an incident of domestic violence. Whatever your views, you have no right to impose those views on your partner.

“And if it is her view that she was travelling and not returning, then so be it.

“I accept however, that the damage caused was an isolated incident and borne out of concern that your child would not return to this country.”

He gave Askabovius a two year conditional discharge, and imposed a two year restraining order, banning him from contact with the woman, except to arrange meetings with the boy.

He was also ordered to pay £85 costs, £150 compensation and a £20 government surcharge, which will be deducted from his benefits at the rate of £5 per week.

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