Abuser attacked girlfriend after spilling McDonald’s food

Daniel Taivalantti subjected his girlfriend to the sickening attack after becoming enraged by a McDonald’s meal spilling onto his lap.

But the 28-year-old, who ordered her to call him ‘king’ during a tumultuous three-month romance, has been spared prison.

Liverpool Crown Court heard yesterday, Friday, that the couple’s relationship first began in September 2019 but was ‘not stable or placid’.

Taivalantti was described as being a ‘man with a temper who was violent and abusive’.

During an incident on New Year’s Eve 2019, the defendant punched two holes in a bedroom door and kicked his foot through the bottom at the victim’s home in Orford.

He also destroyed a mirror while shouting ‘I’ll smash your whole gaff up’.

The following month, he was due to attend the police station in order to answer bail in relation to this matter.

En route, the pair stopped at McDonald’s and bought food.

But Taivalantti became ‘angry’ as they were running late before a meal fell onto his knee, at which point stopped his car on Long Lane and told his partner – who was not fully dressed – to get out of the vehicle.

He spat in her face before swinging a vicious punch in her direction, connecting around the area of the left eye.

Afterwards, he ‘drove erratically’ towards her home and again told her to get out.

When she refused, Taivalantti threw her bank card and car keys out of the window then drove to her grandma’s house and told her to get out again.

At this point, he continued onwards in the direction of the motorway stating that they would travel to the Lake District.

But he stopped the vehicle near to junction 11 of the M62 at Birchwood, took a wrench from the boot and said he was ‘going to hit himself with it so he could blame her’.

Taivalantti then began striking himself with the blunt instrument before a member of the public intervened.

Police then attended the scene and arrested the bloodied assailant.

The complainant meanwhile attended hospital for treatment, having suffered a fractured eye socket, a broken nose and black eyes.

In a statement, she described the torment she had suffered at the hands of Taivallanti – who ‘required her to refer to him as king’ – and was left fearing he would ‘do something to her or her pets’.

‘Hard working’ Taivalantti, of Stirrup Field in Golborne, admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm and criminal damage during an earlier hearing and was handed a 14-month imprisonment suspended for two years.

Sentencing, judge Garrett Byrne said: “It was a short lived and volatile relationship, but that could never justify what you did.

“It must have been a very forceful blow because it caused very serious injuries.

“You sought to blame her, saying she had hit herself.

“The question is whether or not the sentence can be suspended, or is the offence so serious that only a custodial sentence is justified?

“There is no history of breaching court order, there is personal mitigation and there is some prospect of rehabilitation.

“This is not an easy decision, but on balance I’m just persuaded that I will suspend that sentence.

“If you breach this order you will be back here before me and I will have no option but to send you to prison.”

Taivalantti, who has no previous convictions, wept in the dock as he received his sentence.

He was also handed 150 hours of unpaid work plus a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 15 days and ordered to complete a relationships programme.

Judge Byrne also imposed compensation of £500 and a victim surcharge.