Royal Wedding Cavalry Soldier's Violent "Cold Toast" Row With Girlfriend

A Household Cavalry Lance Corporal, who played a key ceremonial role in the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, smothered his girlfriend with a duvet and vowed to leave her in a pool of blood during a Sunday morning 'cold toast' row.

Tank commander Daniel Ridge, 31, pinned 27 year-old nurse and part-time model Johanna Cade to their bed before squirting shower gel over her clothes and putting a £300 pair of her boots in a pan of boiling water.

He was convicted at Wimbledon Magistrates Court of assaulting his girlfriend of two years at her flat in Replingham Road, Southfields on October 5, last year and causing criminal damage to her clothing.

Ridge, of Combermere Barracks, Windsor, who has served in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan, and his mount Vengeful escorted the newly-wed royal couple and HM Queen from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace after their wedding on April 29, 2011.

Talking before the wedding he said: "My mum has set the video and she and my grandparents will be able to follow it all on telly and hopefully recognise me."

He was sentenced to twelve months probation, which includes 100 hours community service work and was ordered to pay Johanna £300 compensation for the assault, £370 for the damage, £620 court costs and an £80 victim surcharge. 

"It happened in the victim's home and there was gratuitous degradation in the way you spoke to the victim," announced magistrate Fiona Abbott. "The compensation is for the bruising and mental anguish caused by this assault.

"You denied your actions and minimised your part in them and the effect on your victim," she added, making an indefinite restraining order prohibiting Ridge contacting Johanna or entering her road.

Miss Cade told the court fellow Devon-native Ridge also threw two eggs and two glass tumblers at her and smeared avocado on her coat before wrapping her in the duvet, leaving her unable to breathe as he throttled her neck.

"I went to the kitchen and he was making breakfast. I said: 'The toast is cold' and his response was: 'Fine, don't have it. I'll make my own, not yours.

"He picked an egg up and threw it at me. I dodged that one and he threw another one at me and I dodged that one. He was quite angry and intense and I was disgusted and frightened.

"He raised a glass tumbler up in the air and threw that at me. I moved and it hit the floor behind me then he raised up a second one and threw it at me and again I moved."

Ridge told the court he playfully "lobbed" two eggs towards Miss Cade to lighten the mood and she deliberately placed the two glasses on the floor before the police arrived.

"I said: 'Please stop. Leave the house' and he said: 'Stop shouting, you're attitude stinks.' He had his underwear on and my dressing-gown and I said: 'Put your clothes on and leave the house.'

"He approached me extremely angrily and said: "I'm going to fuck up your life. I'm going to hurt you until you're lying in your own piss and blood.'

"I was petrified, stunned, frozen and started to cry and he went into my bedroom, got the duvet that was on my bed, and threw it over my head and body.

"I said: 'Get off, I can't breathe.' He had hold of me by the arms and then I was dragged into the bedroom with the duvet over me and pinned to the bed, with hands I think it was, around my neck.

"I couldn't see anything and at first I was very frightened and tried moving, wriggling out and became quite panicked and I managed to get my arm out.

"I reached up and I think I grabbed his ear. I hit the side of his face and made a scratch. I was frightened, I knew I had to get out from being suffocated and held by the throat."

Ridge told the court Miss Cade attacked him, leaving scratches on his neck as well as a cut and he wrapped her in the duvet to restrict her "flailing" arms. 

"She grabbed me and pulled me around the kitchen a bit and started hitting me on the back of the head in a pawing cat-like motion. I got punched in the face and wanted to stop getting hurt and grabbed the duvet to use as a barrier between me and her."

Miss Cade added: "I remember feeling the blood drain from my body. I could feel myself shutting off and not being able to breathe at all. I felt very, very dizzy."

Ridge claims Miss Cade had used one of his trainers to wipe the smashed egg off the floor and told police in a moment of "childish retaliation" he decided to damage her clothes.

"He grabbed some of my clothes and shoes and put a pair of my leather boots in a pan of boiling water," she said. "He got one of my coats and smeared it in avocado and another coat was smeared.

"He removed the boots from the water and smeared them with avocado and then went to the bathroom, grabbed some shower gel, and went into my bedroom.

"I could see he was squirting shower gel over the walls and he opened the wardrobe and squirted shower gel in there as well."

Miss Cade threw out much of the yellow-stained clothing, including a £70 coat and said she had a £550 quote to re-decorate her bedroom.

Ridge left when she threatened to call the police, and Miss Cade added: "I was sweating, so, so frightened. I've never felt so vulnerable and fearful for my life."

She later photographed herself, revealing a bruise to her right elbow, a red mark on her left arm, a red mark to her lower back and a red mark to the right side of her chest. Miss Cade said the assault left her: "Stiff and sore."

Miss Cade denied Ridge's claim she inflicted the injuries to herself and told the court a: "Tissue of lies." She said: "I have no history of psychological problems, depression or self harm. I'm a very stable person."

She told the court of previous occasions Ridge lost his temper with her. "He smashed my phone, a bottle of perfume and once locked me out of his house in Devon at three am while in my underwear and in the rain and has repeatedly dumped me on roadsides and driven off.

"Last August I was very ill with what turned out to be meningitis and Daniel refused to take me to hospital, I begged him to take me to hospital. I had to call my motor and when I got there was rushed straight through."

Miss Cade disagreed with a defence claim Ridge was a "gentleman" throughout their relationship and again let her down during follow-up treatment. "He drove off and shouted out the window of his car: 'Get the bus to hospital.'"

She denied she was "bitter" and gave "false and exaggerated" evidence and threw the avocado at her ex, causing it to burst all over the kitchen.

Ridge told the court: "It was a childish matter that shouldn't really have happened. My clothes were ruined as well, but I didn't think it was right to press charges.

"At no point did I throw any glasses. I did not use any aggression and I did not raise my hands to her."

His lawyer, Mr. David Allman told the court yesterday: "He's been a professional member of the armed services since the age of eighteen and he's currently intending to continue that career for at least nine years.

"He is seeking promotion and that would have happened fairly soon had this court case not occurred. His promotion is now on hold.

"I am asking you to take into account the background of his service career, his duty for his country."