15 March 2024 , 11:33
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This is the mugshot showing an abusive man left without part of his ear after he sliced it off and used it to scrawl "you are dead tick tock" in blood as a threat to his terrified ex.
Monster Samuel Hemingway daubed the message on the woman's wall outside her flat before leaving the severed part on her dressing table, a court heard. The disturbing threat understandably left her petrified and numb.
When officers arrested the 24-year-old, he told them: "All I've done is write that blood on the wall." Bradford Crown Court heard Hemingway had previously sent messages threatening to "break her legs" and horrifyingly followed her home with a hammer.
He was jailed for just 16 months on Thursday after a judge accepted his "remorse", with claims his menacing and disturbing actions came about after he could not accept the failure of his relationship. Judge Jonathan Gibson said it was "patently obvious" Hemingway "couldn't cope" with the breakup, adding that "that was no reason to go and terrify the complainant in the way that you did".
Prosecutor Nicola Hoskins said Hemingway had seen his ex-partner out in his home town of Halifax, West Yorkshire, the night before the incident. He had later contemplated suicide when he got home and admitted he had been drinking and taking cocaine, which he said made him "lose his head".
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After cutting off part of his ear, he went to the building the next day where the woman lived and used the bloody flesh to write the message on the hallway wall. Hemingway said he couldn't explain how the severed piece of ear ended up in the bedroom.
The court heard that after the couple's relationship broke down, Hemingway had sent the woman a series of threatening messages. And on two occasions, Hemingway slapped his victim across the face, and he also snatched her mobile phone from her.
Miss Hoskins also described how late one night, on a previous occasion, the victim heard a scratching noise outside her flat. Cops called to the scene later discovered a large knife on the doormat which had been used to write the message.
Hemingway was arrested after that incident, but he was released on bail with conditions not to contact the complainant or go to her home. A few weeks later he was arrested again and remanded into custody after he left the message in blood on the wall next to her flat.
Taryn Turner, defending Hemingway, said he had found the relationship break-up very difficult to cope with. She suggested that he may have had some residual or underlying mental health issues and his behaviour had been extreme.
She added: "He is remorseful and he is ashamed of what he has done." Hemingway pleaded guilty to a series of offences including stalking, common assault, criminal damage, robbery and possession of an offensive weapon. Alongside his 16-month jail term, the judge imposed a five-year restraining order which bans Hemingway from contacting his victim.