ANTIDEPRESSANT & ALCOHOL: Assault: Man Attacks Kidney Transplant Patient: UK

Paragraph nine reads: “Steve Collins, defending, said his client had
expressed “considerable remorse” and added: “He accepts it was completely out
of order. Alcohol played its part and, perhaps, anti-depressants.”

SSRI Stories Note: The Physicians Desk Reference states that
antidepressants can cause a craving for alcohol and can cause 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.

http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article.aspx?articleID=13103

Man banned from Thatcham for attacking kidney transplant patient
Sun, April 25 2010

By John Garvey, Reporter
Email: newburytoday@newburynews.co.uk
Phone: 01635 564632

A MAN who savagely attacked a frail, Thatcham kidney transplant patient
has been handed a jail term and banned from the town.

Forty-one-year-old Anthony Coles battered his terrified girlfriend Donna
Morrison as she cowered in the bedroom of her Thatcham home, demanding
hundreds of pounds in cash and threatening to stab her pet dog, Newbury
magistrates heard.

But they suspended the prison sentence last Thursday, April 22, ruling
that Mr Coles would not get the help he needed in jail.

Lauren Murphy, prosecuting, said: “The victim, who was subsequently rated
as being a high risk domestic violence victim, is a petite lady who has
health problems and has had two kidney transplants.

“The pair had been in a six-year relationship and he had recently moved
into her home. One evening he came in and had been drinking. She made his tea
but he didn’t want any. He became insulting, saying she wasn’t really ill
and that he didn’t want to be in the relationship any more.

“He asked for £10, which she gave him and she went to bed at 7.30pm, not
wanting to have an argument.”

Mr Coles went out and, upon his return, the court heard, began making
increasing demands for cash until he wanted £500.

Miss Murphy went on: “When she said she wouldn’t be able to get the money
he knocked her to the floor, grabbed her hair and dragged her along the
bedroom floor saying that, if she didn’t get him the money he would take her
dog Barney to the woods and stab him.

“She was petrified and afraid that if she called out she would suffer
serious harm. She told him she would get his money and he warned that if she
called the police he would kill her sister and make her life a misery.”

Miss Morrison made a show of going to the Thatcham Co-Op with her bank
card but then called police, the court heard.

Miss Murphy said: “Officers found her tearful and trembling and she kept
repeating: ‘He is going to kill me.’ She showed officers a large clump of
hair that had ben torn out by being dragged. Mr Coles told officers that he
had just flipped.”

Mr Coles, who now lives in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, admitted assault
causing actual bodily harm on March 4 this year.

Steve Collins, defending, said his client had expressed “considerable
remorse” and added: “He accepts it was completely out of order. Alcohol played
its part and, perhaps, anti-depressants.

“He had no money because his money was paid into her bank account – hence,
he wanted money to get away.”

Mr Collins asked magistrates to read pre-sentence reports and alluded to
on-going problems his client had with regard to relationships, adding: “He
knows you may send him to prison today and he has no problem with that. But
one day he is going to have to address these problems and he won’t be able
to do that in jail.”

Magistrates imposed a four-month jail term, but agreed to suspend it for
two years and ordered Mr Coles to undertake a domestic violence programme.

He was also banned from entering Thatcham for two years and ordered to pay
Miss Morrison £100 compensation.

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