Man grabbed woman’s hair in middle of street before slapping her face

Police arrived to a Lynn address in time to see a man grabbing a woman by the hair and slapping her in the face.

Steven Cross, 34, of Silver Green in Lynn, appeared at the town’s magistrates’ court on Thursday, where he admitted assault by beating.

The incident took place on April 26 at around 7.30pm after the victim asked Cross to leave her property. He refused to do so.

Prosecutor Sally Harris said that Cross chased the woman onto the street and tried to grab her.

The victim called police to ask for assistance, but Cross proceeded to follow her back into the house.

As officers were driving down the street, Cross grabbed the victim by the hair and hit her face.

Officers arrested Cross, who has eight previous convictions – with the most recent of them being in 2009.

In mitigation, Elizabeth Symonds said that Cross was originally offered a conditional caution for the offence, but did not comply with a programme offered in Norwich as part of the conditions – hence why he was at court on Thursday.

“He didn’t get the paperwork for it,” said Ms Symonds.

“He accepts he hit her, and he is sorry for that. When you look at this incident, it happened back in April, and there wasn’t any injuries I believe.”

He was fined £80 for the offence, and was ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £32 and court costs of £105.