Suspended Sentence For Computer Scientist Who Bashed Wife With Bin

Suspended Sentence: Lee Momtahan

A computer scientist, who repeatedly struck his businesswoman wife’s head with a disintegrating plastic bin during a bloody domestic row, received a suspended prison sentence yesterday.

Oxford University graduate Lee Momtahan, 48, was seen by houseguests using carpet cleaner to remove bloodstains from the floor of the £850,000 family home during the violent domestic incident.

An Inner London Crown Court jury convicted him of assaulting Sarah Boada-Momtahan, 44, causing her actual bodily harm, at the Tulsemere Road, West Dulwich family home on October 26, 2019.

“In front of a three year-old, bashing the head of that three year-old’s mother until that nappy bin disintegrated just shows how far he went and does not seem to recognise that,” announced Judge Rosina Cottage KC.

The mother-of-two Fine Arts graduate told the trial her husband continued striking her as hard as he could as the bin was smashed to pieces.

“He put me in a headlock with his arm around my neck. This was after I had been thrown into the wall of my daughter’s bedroom,” said Sarah, the owner of ‘Sanders of Oxford’, a landmark antique print and map shop.

“I was thrown into the wall with such force it caused my jaw to slam shut and my teeth to fracture,” she added.

Momtahan’s father and his wife were visiting the couple and they had all enjoyed a family meal at a local Chinese restaurant.

Afterwards, the guests heard the commotion upstairs and witnessed former IBM employee Momtahan - who now heads a quantitative analysis department - attempting to clean the bloody carpet.

Ironically, Sarah had intimate knowledge of the bin, telling the trial she academically studied that particular design over twenty years ago.

The row erupted at approximately 8.00pm during a dispute over getting their son and daughter to bed.

“He grabbed the bin and hit me over the head with it as hard as he could,” she continued. “I just froze and he just kept hitting me.

“He was swinging the bin around and hitting my head repeatedly and the bin broke while he was hitting me with it. He kept hitting me with the broken bin.

“I felt the bin slice open the back of my head,” added Sarah, who left a trail of blood to the bathroom, where a towel was wrapped around her head.

She was taken to King’s College Hospital, where the wound was glued shut.

She denied Momtahan’s claims she was the aggressor, admitting she did not think she was still in love with her husband at the time and was investigating the possibility of divorce.

Momtahan, who has since moved out rot a flat in Balham Grove, Balham told the jury: “I felt a blow to the back of my head and thought she was punching me. She grabbed my left arm and started pulling.

“I instinctively resisted. I was totally freaked out, panicked and scared,” said the Math & Computer Science graduate.

“I first saw the lampshade, but that was too heavy and I then saw the plastic bin, which was relatively lightweight and not that dangerous and managed to reach it.

“I picked it up and and just hit her to try and get her off me. I was not trying to harm her, just get her off me because my arm was being injured.

“I didn’t hit her very hard. The bin cracked and shattered into pieces and there was nothing left.

“I then saw blood and realised I was hitting her with a sharp object and I’m very sorry about that,” added an emotional Momtahan.

“I then tried to clean up the mess.” 

“It is a question of imposing immediate custody or suspending it,” said Judge Cottage. “He will not go to prison today, but you were a hairs breadth from going to prison today,” she told Momtahan.

“His temper and attitude towards his wife is the cause of this. He felt he could do as he wished and should not have been interrupted,” added the judge.”

Sentencing him to twelve months imprisonment, suspended for two years, she told Momtahan: “You were convicted on the clearest evidence of your wife that you picked up a weapon, a bin, and struck her over the head until it smashed in to pieces.

“This happened in front of your three year-old when you lost your temper and that is an aggravating feature and in a domestic setting, where people have to deal with violence in their own home.”

Momtahan must also complete a twenty-day rehabilitation activity requirement, pay £2,800 costs and pay £500 compensation to his ex-wife.

His lawyer Dominic Thomas told the court: “This is a man of previous good character and this incident happened three years ago. He gave mature responses in the pre-sentence report despite his upset at the conviction.

“This court is not going to see him again now these parties have split up.

“This incident was deeply unattractive and at the tail-end of a marriage. This was wholly uncharacteristic of Mr Momtahan.

“His wife had been to see a divorce lawyer shortly before this incident and with a screaming child it appears to have been the one and only occasion in his life he has snapped and let himself down.”