‘Jekyll and Hyde’ thug controlled girlfriend for years, Leeds Crown Court told

Josh Paul Thompson would regularly slap her, stabbed her in the hand with a key, make her send sexual photos of herself, “bombard” her with messages and would “go ballistic” if he rang her and could hear male voices in the background.

The 32-year-old admitted coercive control, sending a malicious communication and two counts of criminal damage at Leeds Crown Court.

The judge at Leeds Crown Court, Recorder Mark McKone KC said: “You showed an incredible lack of respect for a woman.

"You regularly used violence, you sent dreadful messages, you prevented her going out, checked where she had been and her phone messages.

"In some ways it’s pathetic and childish, but in other ways it’s violent and serious."

Prosecutor Howard Shaw said the couple had been in a relationship for four years but she ended it because of Thompson’s behaviour.

She said after just a few months he became aggressive, would drink heavily and take cocaine.

He would pull her by the hair, and left a scar on her hand after stabbing her with the keys.

Thompson would also lose his temper if she made plans to see friends and would send abusive messages.

She tried to end the relationship in August 2020 but kept communication with him to “keep the peace”.

The victim said she felt forced to keep up the pretence that they were in “some kind of relationship”.

He damaged her home in retaliation for her going on holiday to New York, and tore the head of a teddy bear she had since she was a baby.

If he rang, she had to leave the room in case he heard any voices in the background and turn on her.

On 10pm December 6 last year he turned up at her home in Oulton, banging on the window demanding to know why she was ignoring him.

He left shortly after, but after he had smashed her car window with a brick.

Despite being warned to stay away by police, he would still call he demanding to know where she was.

Then on February 6 this year, she caught him on a security camera in her kitchen looking through her bags. He had kicked the back door in while she was out.

Thompson, of Queen Elizabeth Drive, Normanton, has previous convictions for violence.

He has been held on remand since his arrest in February.

Mitigating, James Littlehales said: “He is very much a Jekyll and Hyde character and he is a nice and pleasant man when sober and drink and drugs can turn him into the opposite.”

Recorder McKone said: “You have a number of convictions for assault and shows you are capable of using violence when you do not get your own way.”

He gave him 20 months’ jail, suspended for two years, given an indefinite-length restraining order, told to enrol in a domestic violence awareness course and told to pay £1,767 compensation.

He told Thompson he was only suspended the sentence because has spent the last seven months on remand.