BOYFRIEND-FROM-HELL ATTACKED PARTNER IN STREET BEFORE 'MANHANDLING' HER INTO CAR
Jealous Andrew Aston subjected his partner to a campaign of controlling behaviour in a relationship from hell.The 41-year-old regularly accused the woman of cheating on him and demanded she Facetime or video call him to prove no-one else was inside her home with her.
On one occasion he attacked her in the street by manhandling her back into his car.
And he nearly crashed head-on with a police car when driving off a pavement.
Now Aston has been jailed for 25 months at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court.
Prosecutor Jessica Foster said the defendant met his victim on Facebook and they began a relationship in January 2025.
But it became abusive in April.
Miss Foster said: "He would constantly accuse her of being unfaithful.
He would often demand that she Facetime or video call him inside the house to prove no-one else was there." She said Aston demanded to see the woman's underwear.
Matters came to a head on June 7 after they had been out and they argued in the vehicle.
Miss Foster said: "The defendant brought the car to a stop on Leek Road.
The victim left the vehicle.
She was deeply upset.
She was helped by members of the public.
One called the police.
The defendant was able to pick the victim up and put her in the passenger seat." "Police in an unmarked vehicle encountered a vehicle on Dividy Road, Bentilee.
The defendant narrowly avoided a head-on collision with the police vehicle and sped off without due care and attention.
Police caught up with him in Arbourfield Drive.
They told him to exit the vehicle.
He refused to do so.
The officer smashed the side window.
He was arrested and taken to custody." In a victim impact statement the woman said her life had been changed by what Aston did to her.
She said she was living in fear in her own home.
She said: "I genuinely feared I might not get out alive.
I stopped going to work as I was too scared.
I am constantly looking over my shoulder.
He destroyed my sense of security.
I was in a hole I could not get out of.
I had to change my job.
The stress was all too much." Aston, of Wesley Court, The Butts, Betley, pleaded guilty to controlling and coercive behaviour, common assault and driving without due care and attention.
The assault was his actions to manhandle her to get her back into the car.
The driving without due care and attention charge was the way he pulled off a pavement on the wrong side of the road towards the police car.
The offences placed him in breach of an eight-month suspended jail sentence he received in 2024 for possession of a machete in public.
Robert Holt, mitigating, said Aston had lung disease which was caused by spray-painting.
He had stopped using medication which may have impacted on his behaviour.
He said Aston had already spent a considerable period of time in custody.
He offered his remorse to the victim and apologized for the upset and hurt that may have been caused.
Judge Richard McConaghy said: "You had become paranoid and controlling.
You demanded to know where she was and who she was talking to.
You bombarded her with texts and other communications in which you demanded to know what she was doing." "On June 7 you assaulted her in the street when there had been an argument between the two of you in which she indicated she did not want to get back in the vehicle with you.
You were continuing to exercise your control over her in the way that you assaulted her by trying to drag her back into the vehicle.
Members of the public had to intervene in the way in which you were behaving towards her." "A little later, clearly while still in a state of anger, you drove your car off the pavement and nearly hit a police car." Judge McConaghy made Aston the subject of a restraining order which prevents him contacting his victim for five years.
