by Staff Reporter

Last updated at 11:56, Tuesday, 16 October 2012

A Carlisle man who killed his uncle four years ago will be back in court today for beating up his girlfriend.

Edward Celmins

Edward Celmins, 29, will be sentenced by the Honorary Recorder of Carlisle, Paul Batty QC – the same judge who, in December 2008, jailed him for four years for manslaughter.

Celmins pleaded guilty at Carlisle Crown Court to causing actual bodily harm to his girlfriend Emma Jane Taylor.

He denied a second charge of common assault on her on the same day, and this was accepted by the prosecution on the grounds that it was not in the public interest to pursue it – especially since Ms Taylor had “been writing to the police declaring her undying affection” for him, the court heard.

Judge Batty said he was prepared to sentence Celmins immediately – without the need for probation reports into his background – since he already knew so much about him after presiding over the trial at which he was convicted of manslaughter.

But the hearing was adjourned until today when doubts emerged about the precise nature of the injury he inflicted on Ms Taylor.

The judge said, though, that because Celmins had such a serious previous conviction on his record, it was just a question of how long he would be sent to prison for.

It was on Saturday, April 26, 2008 that Celmins, of Richmond Green, Harraby, Carlisle, “squeezed the life out of” his uncle, 46-year-old Karl Celmins, after an afternoon spent drinking.

Celmins denied manslaughter, claiming he had only been trying to defend himself when his uncle lunged at him during a “scuffle” at the older man’s flat in Stonegarth, Morton.

But he was found guilty on a majority verdict.

Passing sentence on him, Judge Batty told him: “At the time he met his death your uncle posed little or no threat to you. You killed him quite literally by squeezing the life out of him as you held him in a headlock.”

No details of Celmins’ violence against Ms Taylor were given in court yesterday.

But prosecutor Brendan Burke said she had suffered a displaced fracture of the cheekbone, while Marion Weir, defending, said she had been led to believe the fracture had been undisplaced.

Judge Batty said he could not pass sentence without knowing for sure.

First published at 11:44, Tuesday, 16 October 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk