Woman, 44, jailed for beating her boyfriend with a dumb bell and a saucepan

A former housekeeper at a luxury hotel has been locked up and branded a ‘poisonous drunk’ by a judge after she subjected her long suffering boyfriend to a series of alcohol-fuelled beatings.

Natalie Lord, 44, stabbed Leith Gaynor in one attack and battered him over the head with a saucepan in another after she accused him of being unfaithful.

She was arrested again in 2019 after getting drunk and beating Mr Gaynor over the head with a weightlifter’s dumbbell and then leaving him for dead in a pool of blood.

Natalie Lord, pictured, has been jailed for 27 months and been ordered not to contact her boyfriend Leith Gaynor for ten years after she pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm at Manchester Crown Court

The court heard Lord is a ‘poisonous drunk’ who has been jailed for 27 months and banned from contacting Mr Gaynor for ten years 

The victim – who is in his 40s – lost consciousness during the assault and was woken up the following day by his mother who went to visit him at his flat in Manchester.

He had suffered a three quarters of an inch laceration to his left temple and a two inch wound to the back of his head. He also suffered multiple chest grazes, teeth marks on his chest and bruising to his hand.

Mr Gaynor said: ‘This latest attack has left me feeling very depressed. I have forgiven Natalie too many times now and I do not want her to do it to anyone else.’

At Manchester Crown Court, Lord of Salford admitted causing grievous bodily harm and was jailed for 27 months. She was also banned from contacting Mr Gaynor for ten years under the terms of a restraining order.

Sentencing Judge Hilary Manley told her: ‘This was a sustained attack and you have absolutely no excuse for committing it. You have a history of becoming violent in drink and you know alcohol is a poison for you.

‘In September 2019 while subject to a suspended sentence order, you chose to drink again with predictable results. You attacked your ex-partner, a man who you had wounded in 2016 with a knife. You are a poisonous drunk, and you chose to be around him again.

Manchester Crown Court heard Lord had attacked Mr Gaynor several times during a relationship which had been described as ‘volatile, unpredictable and difficult’

‘You have caused very nasty injuries to his head, face and arms. I am pleased to hear that you have been sober for six months while in custody and that you are determined to sort your life out.

‘But at 44, it’s now or never. Last year, you had an altercation with a neighbour and spat at her and you were convicted after a trial for that. You have reached the end of the road in terms of chances with the court.’

Earlier the court heard Lord and Mr Gaynor and been in a relationship for a ‘number of years’ but it was said to be ‘volatile, unpredictable and difficult.’

Prosecutor Miss Amanda Johnson said: ‘One minute they could be laughing and joking and the next minute she could turn violent. Arguments over infidelity tended to lead to episodes of violence. There have been previous assaults by this defendant to the complainant and the first involved a knife where she caused cuts to his chest and forearm.

‘The second time, she used a pan to strike him to the head five times and used a glass object to hit his head. She says both times she acted in self defence. In this case it was an unprovoked attack when she was under the influence of alcohol.

‘The complainant suffered injuries to his head while his back was turned. In September 2019, they had been out drinking and gone back to his flat. He was sat on the sofa when she accused him of being unfaithful. Then, while his back was turned she struck him to the head and forearms.

‘He recalls waking up between his bathroom and the living room. He described how his head felt like it was shaking and there was blood on the floor. He was woken up by his mother, and he was confused and bewildered.

‘In hospital, the defendant mentioned that she had hit him with a dumbbell. When she was arrested she predominantly answered no comment in interview. She said she did not call an ambulance because she said he was “fine”.’

Natalie Lord, pictured right, has been jailed for 27 months after admitting a string of assaults against Leith Gaynor, left, in Manchester.

In mitigation for Lord, defence counsel Iain Johnstone said: ‘Both were drinking a lot of alcohol and there was an argument. She accepts she hit him with something but does not recall what that was although she accepts the injuries caused to him were her fault.

‘It is clear this is a defendant who was in a stable relationship until 2014 but she has then for whatever reason got herself into poisonous relationships with people which involve drinking.

‘She has created a very chaotic lifestyle especially with Mr Gaynor. It was an on and off relationship. When she has been drinking she turns into a completely different person. She is 44 now and she really is serious about tackling her substance abuse. She is serious about getting her life back together.

‘She has no intention of going back to her drinking ways of old. She is capable of putting up quite a fight in drink. She is not a hopeless cause. She has demonstrated she is capable of leading an honest life.’ 

Police investigating the latest beating of Mr Gaynor in September 2019 discovered Lord had a history of drink related violence and had been flouting a suspended sentence order imposed for assault on three strangers in 2018.

During that attack Lord had gone on a wild night out after she worked a shift at the four star Principal Hotel in Manchester city centre then became enraged at a woman speaking on her mobile phone in a foreign language as they and other commuters were waiting for a bus.

She shouted: ‘I can understand you and you are slagging me off, you f****** foreigner’ before turning on the victims. One female bystander was punched twice in the face, before Lord took on the victim’s boyfriend when he tried to intervene.

A third woman was slapped to the face and called a ‘white arse p***’ before Lorde was eventually apprehended by staff at Shudehill coach station in Manchester. She had also been convicted of attacking a neighbour in a separate incident whilst drunk.