Adelaide man Jared Lee Smith’s ‘cruel’ abuse of pregnant ex-partner revealed as he is jailed

A man who screamed into the stomach of his pregnant partner as he slammed her head on the ground has been jailed for years of violence.

A man who forced his ex-partner to endure years of horrific, violent abuse - at times while she was pregnant or holding a baby - has been jailed.

Jared Lee Smith, from Adelaide’s southern suburbs, was sentenced in the District Court last month after pleading guilty to abusing his ex partner during a series of “cruel” acts that began in 2017.

In the victim’s impact statement to the court, the woman described how “destructive” the relationship with Smith had been.

“Despite the facts she knew what you were doing was wrong, she was not prepared to give up on you easily … she just wanted someone to love her,” Judge Davison said.

Judge Davison said the victim’s statement to the court was an “articulate” testament to the manipulative and cruel abuse she suffered.

“She lost her job because of you, you made her late for work because you would leave her at home with you son, you wouldn’t answer your phone, you would take her car and not return it.”

Judge Davison said Smith humiliated his partner and her victim impact statement was “an articulate testament to the manipulation and cruelty” he subjected her to.

The 36-year-old pleaded guilty to eight counts of aggravated assault, five counts of aggravated assault causing harm and one count of unlawfully choking, suffocating or strangling another.

The court heard throughout the three-year relationship, Smith repeatedly used violence against his partner – often after an argument.

Judge Davison said the first incident occurred after a few weeks of living together, during an argument over the way she cooked dinner. Smith grabbed her in a headlock, threw her to the floor and poured water over her head.

“You cried and apologised and promised it would never happen again,” Her Honour said.

Another incident involved Smith striking her with a hair dryer, stomping on her head in front of his one-year-old son, then refusing her hospital access.

A few months later he threw her into a glass cabinet, breaking it, threw her into a wall and slammed her head on to tiles.

He punched her to the face on a different occasion while holding their baby.

At other times, he slammed her head into a kitchen counter, hit her so hard with a motorcycle helmet she could not walk for a while, shoved her into a wall - putting a hole in it - and punched her in the face as she drove a car.

During one sickening attack he slammed her head into tiles while she was pregnant and headbutted her, then screamed three times into her stomach, “We aren’t having this baby because I don’t know if it’s mine”.

On another occasion he began to strangle her when she and her mother were late home, stopping only when his son entered the room and began crying.

He also punched when she refused drugs while pregnant and squeezed her so hard in a headlock so hard she lost consciousness when she said he was mistreating the cat.

The court heard Smith placed a recording device on his victim, which captured her going to the police station to drop charges against him after police became aware of the abuse.

Judge Davison said Smith was diagnosed with ADHD at an early age, began using alcohol and cannabis in his teens and was addicted to other drugs, which was linked to his repeated arrests for other crimes during the relationship.

Her Honour said she would have sentenced him to more than 18 years if a sentence for each of the 14 offences had been accumulative.

Judge Davison sentenced Smith to six years imprisonment with a three-year, nine-month non-parole period.