Woman feared for life as 'serial domestic abuser' strangled her in Sheffield hotel room

“The person you turned into was crazy,” a woman has said of her domestic abuser, after he left her feeling like she was going to die as he attempted to strangle her during a ‘terrifying’ incident in a Sheffield hotel room.

Sheffield Crown Court heard how Cavan Ward, aged 38, and the complainant initiated a romantic relationship in February 2023; and although it started well enough, things between the pair quickly began to deteriorate. 

Prosecutor Neil Coxon said difficulties between the pair manifested through verbal arguments ‘without violence’. 

Ward’s violent side - which has previously seen him convicted of offences of threats to kill and wounding carried out against another partner - emerged on May 11, 2023  however, when the couple visited Sheffield for a trip away. 

Mr Coxon said the complainant had arranged for the pair to attend a darts match and stay in a Sheffield hotel overnight to celebrate Ward’s birthday, but his attitude towards her quickly soured after she was delayed by an hour to pick him up. 

Describing the circumstances, Judge Peter Hampton told Ward: “You were in a bad mood. She wanted to leave you, due to your bad behaviour. Your response was to ring her and say: ‘How dare you leave me, I’ll f***ing kill you’.”

Ward subsequently went to the hotel room the complainant was staying in.

Judge Hampton continued: “You burst into the room, kicking the door off the latch. You forced her onto the bed, behaving in a sexually possessive and threatening manner.”

“You took her to the floor, you were strangling her. She was scared, and she couldn’t breathe. You showed no signs of stopping, and she began to panic as your hands tightened around her neck. She genuinely felt like she was going to die. 

“Bravely, she began to fight back, in what must have been a completely terrifying incident.”

In a moving statement submitted to the court, the complainant described how, after strangling her, Ward did not desist from his threatening behaviour; and she later awoke to find him standing over her. 

“You didn’t seek any help,” the complainant said, referring to the injuries Ward subjected her to. She continued: “I couldn’t eat or properly move my jaw for days.”

“The person you turned into was crazy, and it will never leave me, it was terrifying.”

The complainant also revealed that she was ‘disgusted’ with herself for opening up to Ward, but said she hoped that by coming forward, it would stop him from harming other victims in the future. 

Mr Coxon said Ward initially sought to deny responsibility for his actions, and claimed the complainant had been the one to attack him, using a broken bottle; and any actions she suffered were inflicted as he attempted to defend himself. 

He subsequently withdrew from that position, however, when entered a guilty plea to a charge of intentional strangulation at an earlier hearing. 

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Describing the circumstances surrounding Ward’s threats to kill and wounding offences against another former partner in 2019, Mr Coxon told the court that Ward had ‘grabbed her by the throat’ and ‘repeatedly banged her head against the wall, causing a fracture to her nose’. 

“The complainant tried to use her phone to call 999, and he took the phone from her hand. At a later stage, he stepped on her hand, causing a fracture to her finger,” Mr Coxon said, adding that Ward told her he would kill her and then himself, before forcing her head under water in a bath. 

Ward was sentenced to 28 months’ imprisonment for those offences, the court heard.

Defending, Marte Alnaes prefaced her mitigation by telling the court that ‘nothing I can say, and nothing I do say is intended to minimise or excuse the defendant’s behaviour’. 

She continued: “Mr Ward is clearly a man who has many demons, but they have not come out of nowhere.” 

Ms Alnaes went on to say that Mr Ward had endured ‘a difficult start to life, an absent father’ and a lonely childhood as his mother worked and struggled to make ends meet, as a single mother. 

She said that at the time of his most recent criminality, Ward had reported an incident from his past to the police and had been informed that the police were set to arrest an alleged suspect. 

“It doesn’t excuse what happened here. It’s simply an explanation to explore,” Ms Alnaes said. 

She told the court that Ward, who has a personality disorder, has used his time on remand to ‘better himself,’ and has come to realise that much of his offending stems from drugs and alcohol. Consequently, Ward has been ‘engaging with the substance misuse and mental health’ teams while in custody, continued Ms Alnaes. 

Jailing Ward for 30 months, Judge Hampton told him: “You are a serial domestic abuser, and your views within domestic relationships mean that if not now, you will soon become a dangerous offender.”

He said the question of whether to legally classify Ward as a dangerous offender, which can result in extended sentences being passed down, had caused the court ‘some anxiety’.

Judge Hampton said he had concluded, however, that the ‘danger’ Ward, of Trafford Grove, Leeds, poses can be ‘managed’ through his custodial sentence. 

He also granted a 10-year restraining order, which prohibits Ward from contacting the complainant through any means during that period.