Last paragraph reads: “He said: ‘He
was prescribed anti-depressants following the
break-up of his relationship. All of these matters came to a head on the night
of this offence. For the first time in six to eight months, he started drinking
again.”
“It was a jovial affair, a party. His tolerance
levels for alcohol were greatly diminished. It explains, in part, he has
very little recollection of events. Police on arrival found him incoherent and
unsteady on his feet, and he was taken to hospital because of the condition he
was in.”
SSRI Stories Note: The Physicians Desk Reference states
that antidepressants can cause a craving for
alcohol and alcohol abuse. Also, the liver
cannot metabolize the antidepressant and the alcohol simultaneously, thus
leading to higher levels of both alcohol and the antidepressant in the
human body.
Clifton house guest strangled and threatened
Monday,
September 14, 2009, 07:00
A WOMAN was told she would be disfigured and
killed by a knife-wielding friend who got drunk at a family party.
Marcus
Musson held a blade to Karen Savage and strangled her until she lost
consciousness.
When he fell asleep, she escaped to the safety of her
mum’s home and called police.
After Musson was arrested, he said he could
not remember what happened.
At Nottingham Crown Court, he pleaded guilty
to assault causing actual bodily harm, and received two years and three months
in prison.
Three months of the sentence was because he breached a 180-day
sentence, suspended for 12 months, for battery on another woman previously
sharing his home.
Judge Dudley Bennett said: “For a decade now you have
been using violence in one away or another on anyone who stands in your
way.
“You grabbed hold of this woman by her hair and pulled her through
from one room to another by her hair. If that stood alone, it is a pretty
horrible thing to do. Then you got a knife and held it to her chin and
threatened to disfigure her.
“Knives kill, I keep saying this.
Mercifully, she did not suffer any injuries as a result of that. You then cut
her hair off in great clumps. That is a disfigurement. It’s dreadful. There you
are using that knife on her. Then you strangle her to the point she loses
consciousness. Then you head-butt her and cut her skin.”
Miss Savage had
known 37-year-old Musson for years and stayed on and off with him in the weeks
leading up to the attack because of problems with her
accommodation.
After a family party in Clifton on Valentine’s Day, Musson
accused her of trying to make advances towards one of her guests.
Miss
Savage, who was not in a relationship with Musson, told him it had nothing to do
with him.
“He reached over, grabbed her hair and twisted it around his
hand and pulled her by her hair into the kitchen and pushed her into a corner,”
said Jon Fountain, prosecuting.
“He got a knife, put it to her chin, then
against her cheek and said, ‘I’m going to kill you. No-one will look at you when
I have finished’.”
Closing her eyes and fearing the worst, Musson hacked
at her hair and threw large clumps to the floor.
He tried to choke her
and said “it’s because I love you” before head-butting her.
Musson, now
of HMP Nottingham, threw down the knife and went to sleep on the
sofa.
Miss Savage fled barefoot from the house to her mother’s home. She
had cuts to her scalp and pain to her ribs.
Musson’s previous convictions
include assaulting police, using threatening words and behaviour, affray and
common assault.
Mitigating, Adrian Langdale told the court Musson had
been drinking 10 to 15 cans of alcohol a day, but had stopped before this
assault.
He said: “He was prescribed anti-depressants following the
break-up of his relationship. All of these matters came to a head on the night
of this offence. For the first time in six to eight months, he started drinking
again.
“It was a jovial affair, a party. His tolerance levels for alcohol
were greatly diminished. It explains, in part, he has very little recollection
of events. Police on arrival found him incoherent and unsteady on his feet, and
he was taken to hospital because of the condition he was
in.”
