A CO DERRy man who punched his pregnant teenage girlfriend twice in the stomach and told her "you should probably have a miscarriage now" has walked free on a suspended sentence. Richard Joseph Fullerton was 16 when he hit the 14-year-old girl "full force... just below the belly button" after she told him she was expecting his baby. Fullerton, now aged 20, was cleared of the more serious charge of assaulting his former girlfriend with intent to procure a miscarriage after the prosecution accepted a guilty plea to common assault. His victim, who never wanted him jailed, said she was "happy enough" with the sentence. She and her grandmother said all they wanted was to "get on with our lives and to put this all behind us". They had listened at Antrim Crown Court as Judge Desmond Marrinan said that despite changes in social values it was still shocking that as a young teenager Fullerton, of Leckagh Drive in Magherafelt, had engaged in a sexual relationship with a young schoolgirl. He described Fullerton's actions as "despicable". The judge said that had Fullerton been a little older at the time of the offence in February 2010 he would have had no hesitation in jailing him. The court previously heard a taped police interview in which the teenage girl said that when she revealed a pregnancy test "had come back positive", a "very upset and annoyed" Fullerton said the test may have been "mixed up". When she then "turned round to give him a hug he punched me in the stomach twice... full-force punch... just below the belly button". As she "sat on the bed doubled in two", her younger brother came in asking what was wrong, only for Fullerton to tell him she had "a sore stomach", while she herself "felt sick". She revealed that in the following weeks, in several text messages, Fullerton gave her an ultimatum of choosing him or their unborn child. He even encouraged her to slip off to England for a supposed holiday but in reality to seek an abortion. "I didn't want to go to England to have an abortion. I remember people saying, 'If you ever have an abortion you will regret it'," she told police. Michael Ford, defending, said that despite Fullerton's offence a healthy and happy young girl was born and by his guilty plea he had saved his former girlfriend of having to go through the strain of appearing in court. Mr Ford said Fullerton had hit out in a momentary lapse of self-control. He had been candid enough to acknowledge that, having panicked and lashed out, his actions were unacceptable and reckless. The judge, in suspending Fullerton's two-month detention sentence for a year, said his hand had been "stayed" given the defendant's clear record, guilty plea and reports showing that he was growing into a decent young man.
