22 October 2023 , 11:39
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The victim of a vicious domestic attack by her boyfriend at home in Birmingham has spoken out about her "perfect" partner turned into an "animal" on a night out that left her fearing for her life. Amy Beckley started dating Shaquille McDonald just six weeks before the horrendous attack in March this year.
Amy said: "He was kind, caring, thoughtful, affectionate and accepted that I was a single mother. He had love bombed me."
However, a Friday night out in Birmingham city centre turned ugly after McDonald turned in a jealous rage. He attacked Amy so badly she left off her top floor balcony, thinking he was going to kill her.
The couple had been out in town, with Amy, a firefighter with West Midlands Fire Service, chatting to people she knew, one of whom was a doorman. But that conversation led to McDonald calling her a b**** and a s*** and led to him forcing her into a taxi in a headlock
A Friday night out in Birmingham city centre turned ugly after McDonald turned in a jealous rage (Getty Images)Amy said that while in the Uber cab, he bit her face and scratched her. When they got to her flat, she claims he snatched the then 29-year-old’s phone and grabbed her by the throat. He then forced her into the flat, where he carried out a sustained attack causing her leap from her balcony and land 14 feet below.
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Now Amy wants to speak out about the attack to warn others and to urge victims to speak up and report domestic attacks. McDonald, of Dart Street, Bordesley, was a Birmingham City FC youth striker and has played for Coventry and Tamworth.
He was jailed for two years and eight months at Birmingham Crown Court for assault occasioning actual bodily harm and non-fatal strangulation. But he will be out sooner having served seven-and-a-half months already on remand.
Amy, now 30, told BirminghamLive: "He’s got a Jekyll and Hyde personality. We had mutual friends and I have known him a couple of years. And I had only been going out with him for six weeks when this happened."
"The reason we had been going out that night to the Arcadian was he was going to officially ask me to be his girlfriend. He almost love bombed me with compliments, being affectionate."
"That night he changed, Amy continued. "For a week before the attack he wouldn’t leave me alone. He wouldn’t leave my flat. Everywhere I went, he wanted to know where I went."
Through her work as a firefighter, Amy said she has attended a lot of incidents and knew a lot of people. And it was a chat with a doorman that appeared to spark a jealous rage.
She said: "I was in conversation with a bouncer and Shaquille said I was flirting with him, which I wasn’t. The week before this happened I had picked up he had a bit of a short temper but he had done nothing physical. For me this was so horrific, there’ wasn’t even a build-up."
"That night his demeanour was different. He had grabbed my phone off me and run off with it. He had been using it to pay for drinks before. He had been going through my phone."
“A couple did try and intervene. That’s when a taxi pulled up which he had ordered. When I was in the taxi he had me in a headlock."
"He was biting me and I had got scratches on my face. He slapped me too. All in the 20-minute taxi ride. He had an issue because I work in an environment with a number of men."
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In the flat, she claims he smashed her head into a concrete floor, and kicked her on the floor, which was when one of her elbows was broken.
She continued: “It was around half past four in the morning and we got to my flat. No one’s around. He’s then got keys.
"He dragged me and got me on the bed and he was on top of me strangling me," she said.
"He’d let go and then strangle again for longer. He said ‘I’m going to put you to sleep, there's nothing you can do about it’. He said he would get other people to beat me too."
Amy’s neighbours below were on holiday and to the sides were empty Airbnbs. At that moment, she thought he was going to kill her.
She said: "I tried to reach for anything to get him off me. He then left the room and left my phone. I thought he could be going to get a knife."
"I called 999 but didn’t speak as he’d hear me. I dialled 55 – a silent 999 call. It gives police an idea of where you are but not your exact location. I put the phone down the side of the bed hidden and left it."
"I looked at all the windows but all the keys weren’t in the locks. When he came back he started strangling me again. I was starting to lose consciousness. I could feel my heartbeat building in my head."
She continued: "I had four attempts trying to get my breath. I managed to get one of my feet free and used it to manoeuvre us onto the floor. I then screamed my son’s name, got up and ran through the living room and kitchen and onto the balcony as the door was not locked and jumped off the balcony."
"A neighbour two flats along was having a cigarette on the balcony and dragged me into his flat. If I’d have landed on the concrete below I’d have broken my legs.".
"Shaquille came into the flat but my neighbour told him to keep his distance. The neighbour had his arm around me and led me out of the property. Shaquille tried to get me into my flat but that’s when the police appeared and he went ‘I’m f*****’. The neighbour saved my life."
McDonald was not arrested straight away. The police’s priority was Amy and she was taken to Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield, where doctors urged her to report the incident.
She said: "I had two broken elbows, skin missing and metal bits in my knees, scratches, slap marks all over my body. The handprints were on my legs hours after the attack."
She went back to her flat with two female police officers after being discharged from hospital later in the day and said McDonald ‘tried the door’ but left, in her view, after seeing officers in uniform. He was arrested within an hour on Saturday (March 4) night.
Amy is now living in temporary accommodation having left her flat. She said: "I had to get rid of it. I couldn’t live there again knowing I couldn’t get out. I had lived there three years."
"My dad was hospitalised three weeks ago because of the stress of it all. I can’t go around unless I am in a car or with someone. I felt the anxiety in the build-up to the court hearing, which I attended by video link. All these implications."
Asked about the two-year, eight-month sentence, Amy said: “I am pleased he’s behind bars. The sentence was frustrating. He’s had so much time off from time served. I don’t think it’s enough."
"But I now feel that empowerment to share my story. Even if it helps just one woman who has thee strength to go to the police then I have done something positive from this. That will be justice to me."
If you have been affected by issues of domestic violence or coercive control you can call Refuge's 24-Hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline for free. The number is 0808 2000 247