A high-flying businessman who boasts of being pals with David Beckham and Gordon Ramsey launched a vicious attack on his fiancée after a night partying – using her designer Louis Vuitton handbag as a weapon.
Heidi Cook, who previously dated U2 bassist Adam Clayton, was struck in the face by violent Daniel Hart, 36, during a drunken rage the morning after the star-studded party near Leeds.
Leeds Crown Court heard that Hart – who brags of rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous – grabbed the luxury handbag from under the car armrest and lashed out as Ms Cook drove along the city’s ring road.
The bag’s metal clasp smashed into her mouth, breaking one tooth and chipping another, before a terrified Ms Cook abandoned the car and begged for help.
Police arrived and arrested Hart, who was said to be still under the influence of alcohol after the boozy party.
The court was told the pair had travelled from London to attend a party at the mansion of a famous England cricketer, where tensions simmered between the pair.
Detailing the 8am attack in September 2019, Alasdair Campbell, prosecuting said: ‘There was a party in Leeds, the complainant and defendant having driven up from London.
‘During that party there was an argument between them.
‘As they were driving back to a hotel there was an argument on the journey that turned into violence, in the sense that she was hit to her shoulder and ultimately injured by the defendant picking up a bag that had been restrained underneath the armrest.
‘With that bag, he hit her to the face once.
‘Police attended. She had by that stage got out of the car, leaving the engine running.
‘The defendant at the scene accepted he had a massive barney with his partner.”
Hart, who runs an audiovisual company in London, denied deliberately assaulting Ms Cook but was found guilty at trial by a majority verdict.
Recalling the ordeal, Ms Cook, also from London, told the court she was glad to ‘free of Dan and his gang of shameful friends’ and thankful did not ‘lose an eye or have a head-on collision’.
She told the court how she was injured with a right hook to her arm before being hit with her clutch bag, on top of which was a metal ornament.
She said: ‘One of my front teeth has been broken but the fix didn’t hold up and I had to go back for a temporary solution. I need to have it repaired in a way which is more durable.
