Wife threw boiling oil over her husband - after he asked to go outside for a cigarette

The shocking attack happened just five months after she smacked him over the head with a prosecco bottle, knocking him to the ground.
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A wife has been jailed for throwing boiling oil over her husband - after he asked to go outside for a cigarette.

Roxanna De Gravell, 42, threw the pan of scalding liquid over her partner before laughing at him when he screamed in agony.

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The shocking attack happened just five months after she smacked him over the head with a prosecco bottle, knocking him to the ground, the Northamptonshire Telegraph reports.

Roxanna De Gravell, 42, threw the pan of scalding liquid over her partner before laughing at him when he screamed in agony (SWNS)Roxanna De Gravell, 42, threw the pan of scalding liquid over her partner before laughing at him when he screamed in agony (SWNS)
Roxanna De Gravell, 42, threw the pan of scalding liquid over her partner before laughing at him when he screamed in agony (SWNS)

De Gravell wept as she was jailed for four years after she admitted two counts of assault causing actual bodily harm.

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‘Boiling oil is every bit as damaging a substance as acid’

Sentencing her at Northampton Crown Court, Recorder Michael Auty QC said: "It's both a miracle and a mercy that he was not more severely injured.

“Boiling oil, in my judgement, is every bit as damaging a substance as acid.

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"What you did could have killed him or at the very least left him with life-altering injuries.

"And your reaction to what you did was to laugh at him and tell him that he asked for it.

"He did not ask you for it. He begged you not to do it.

"I have no alternative but to sentence you to a term of imprisonment.

"It gives me no pleasure to have to pass that sentence, but I have a public duty."

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She was also handed a restraining order banning her from contacting her husband.

De Gravell flew into a rage when husband asked to go outside

De Gravell, who had been in a relationship with her husband since 2008, flew into a rage when he asked for a key to go outside for a smoke on December 30.

She refused and told him to finish chopping vegetables which he did but when he asked again, his wife jabbed him in the face with the key.

The man dashed upstairs and hid in the bathroom at their home in Corby, Northants.

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De Gravell stayed outside the bathroom door with a pan of boiling oil which she hurled at her husband when he came out.

‘She laughed at him’

Henry Gordon, prosecuting, said: "He told her to calm down and, emerging a while later, De Gravell proceeded to throw the pan of hot oil over him.

"The hot oil made contact and scalded his hand, neck and ear."

The victim screamed and ran water over his skin in a desperate attempt to stop the burning.

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Mr Gordon added: "De Gravell responded by laughing at him and saying 'you asked for it'."

The court heard the man raced outside and used a hosepipe to run water over himself but was in so much pain he couldn't sleep.

The next day he went to Kettering General Hospital where he was treated for burns on his face, neck, ear and hand and bruising and scratching beneath his eye.

He told a nurse what had happened and previous incidents of abuse by his wife and a safeguarding referral was made.

Victim statement

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In a victim statement, her husband said he had found it hard to acknowledge what had happened to him, "making it harder for him to speak out each time, giving her one more chance".

He said he had lost confidence and self-esteem and still loved her despite her violent outbursts.

Mr Gordon said: "He says she needs to understand her actions and take responsibility for them."

Liam Muir, defending, said: "This offence has been an eye-opener for her.

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"She has finally realised her demons and is trying to deal with them."

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