How NHS 111 call handler spotted the clues that put serial domestic abuser in jail

A serial domestic abuser has been jailed for eight years after an attentive NHS call-handler pieced together clues that led police to his front door.

Nathan Giltinane's victim called 111 on 13 November to ask for medical help for a black eye and "bust lip", and said she was feeling dizzy.

But the call-handler offering advice could hear a man controlling the conversation in the background, telling the woman to say that she had fallen over.

After becoming suspicious, the control room worker contacted police, who turned up at the house in Cambridge late on 13 November last year.

They found Giltinane and the woman, who had chipped front teeth and could barely move her arm.

Giltinane was arrested and the woman was taken to hospital where further checks revealed she had a broken arm, hair missing and a lump on her head warranting a CT scan.

On the way to hospital, she told officers it was Giltinane who had attacked her, saying he had kicked her in the head, chipping her teeth, and she had lost consciousness.

In police interview, Giltinane claimed he “backhanded” his partner, which made her fall over on to her arm, but said he did it in retaliation after she hit him first.

Giltinane, of Walnut Tree Avenue, Cambridge, was later charged with assault occasioning grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent, coercive behaviour and criminal damage.

He denied the charges, but pleaded guilty to GBH with intent on the day his trial was due to begin at Peterborough Crown Court in May. The other two charges were ordered to lie on file.

He was jailed at Cambridge Crown Court on Friday and given a 10-year restraining order preventing him from contacting his victim in any way.

Sentencing, Recorder James Willan KC told him there was “no excuse” for the attack on his partner, whose arm he broke while she tried to defend herself as he punched and kicked her while she was on the floor.

He said alongside her broken arm, there was bruising to the woman’s forehead, eye socket, shoulders, the back of her hand and she also had fractured teeth. There had been at least eight points of contact where she had been hit.

The judge said Giltinane had been jailed before for domestic violence offences, and that his victim had been attacked while home alone with no phone.

He said Giltinane posed a “significant risk of harm to future female intimate partners” as he was “willing to use significant violence”.

Det Con Frankie Enticknap, who investigated, said: “Giltinane savagely attacked his partner, and then encouraged her to lie about how she had been injured.

“I would like to thank the NHS 111 call taker who realised something wasn’t quite right – it’s precisely suspicions like these that can make all the difference.

“Giltinane’s behaviour left his partner incredibly frightened, and no one should ever be made to feel that way. Domestic abuse is never acceptable and there is no excuse."

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