Teen who attacked pregnant woman with a machete is jailed Published duration 21 April 2017

image copyright Devon & Cornwall Police image caption Travis Kendrick, 18, was a stranger to his victim

A teenager has been jailed for a machete attack on a pregnant woman which may have caused her to give birth prematurely.

Travis Kendrick smashed into the 25-year-old's Torquay home and knocked her down before she was kicked repeatedly in the face by an accomplice.

Exeter Crown Court heard she suffered "anxiety and trauma" and feared for her unborn child's life.

Kendrick, 18, from Plymouth, was jailed for two years and eight months.

He will serve his sentence in a Young Offenders' Institution, after admitting burglary and wounding.

The court heard Kendrick and his fellow attacker had broken into the house on Abbey Road one evening in October 2016 the hope of finding drugs or cash to steal and ransacked it.

'Blood pouring'

They approached the woman from behind, knocked her onto the kitchen floor with blows from a heavy weapon to the back of her head then repeatedly kicked her face, the court heard.

The victim, who lived with her young child but was alone at the time, fled into the street with blood pouring from her head.

The court was told she suffered broken teeth, nose and cheek bone and was only able to eat soft food for weeks.

Her baby was born prematurely and doctors believed the stress of the attack and her limited diet may have caused this.

The court heard Kendrick was a complete stranger to his victim and was traced by police because he left a sample of DNA on a machete which was found in her kitchen.

The second attacker has not been caught.