April 14, 2017
A Bensalem man has been sentenced to prison for allegedly stalking and terrorizing his ex-girlfriend for two years, authorities said Thursday.
The Bucks County District Attorney's Office announced Thomas Blood, 43, will spend three and a half to seven years behind bars on charges he subjected the woman to repeated abuse.
Prosecutors say in December 2015, Blood sat and waited outside the woman's Bensalem home while she was at a fire pit with her aunt and followed them when they went inside.
There, Blood threatened to kill them both before pouring a can of beer over his former girlfriend's head, then smashing it onto the side of her face, authorities say.
At the time, Blood was under a protection from abuse order for a 2014 incident in which he allegedly cut the victim's hand with a knife inside her home, tore off her shirt and bra, pushed her head into a swimming pool and held it there, threatening to drown her.
During Wednesday's sentencing, Bucks County Common Pleas Court Judge Diane E. Gibbons called Blood a danger to the victim and the community, adding that he had been under at least three previous protection from abuse orders for stalking women as far back as the 1990s.
Blood's family and friends testified he had struggled with substance abuse and mental health issues, and that he was able to control his behavior around them.
But prosecutors argued previous jail time hadn't deterred Blood from continuously abusing his victims, and that he was a threat to the victim if he was free.
Gibbons said Blood's issues should be addressed with therapeutic or forensic service programs in state prison.
