BRADFORD MAN STRANGLED, SLAPPED AND ABUSED FORMER PARTNER
A man who strangled, slapped, controlled, and abused a former partner – including spray painting an insult on her home – has avoided an immediate prison sentence.But Ben Graham has been handed a 15-year restraining order banning him from contacting his victim.
Bradford Crown Court heard how Graham, 31, of Nene Street, Bradford, subjected the woman to “a substantial period of abuse” that began with verbal abuse and escalated to controlling behaviour.
This included demanding access to her mobile phone and limiting who she could speak to, slapping or hitting her weekly “for no good reason”, isolating her from friends and family by making it unpleasant for people to visit her, restricting when she could go out, and becoming aggressive if she came home late.
Graham was also said to have discouraged her from working, and on one occasion dragged her out of bed and hit her.
The last incident led the woman to decide that their relationship was over.
However, Graham’s behaviour escalated.
When he saw her pictured with an old schoolfriend on her phone he strangled her to the point that she struggled to breathe and became disorientated.
After the relationship finished he would drive past her place of work and send “somewhat sinister” messages saying she should not walk home alone.
He also spray-painted her home with an insult.
When the police visited the woman they heard her phone ringing, and it was Graham.
Among the voice messages he left was: “I only slapped her when she deserved it.” The court heard that she was “placed in fear of violence on many occasions.” Graham pleaded guilty in advance of a trial to controlling and coercive behaviour that encompassed intentional strangulation and stalking.
In mitigation, the court heard that Graham, who had no previous convictions, had a history of mental health difficulties and had been diagnosed with ADHD.
He had also suffered a serious injury in a motorcycle accident in 2016 that he claimed had affected his mood regulation.
He had expressed remorse towards the victim although there was also “a degree of victim blaming”, but he had made efforts to disengage from her and to leave her to live her life.
The court heard that Graham had spent around five months on remand – the equivalent of a nine-month sentence – plus some time on a curfew and that there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation in his case.
Sentencing Graham to 23 months imprisonment suspended for two years, Mr Recorder David Gordon said his behaviour had been designed to “humiliate and degrade” his ex-partner.
He added: “Domestic abuse and controlling and coercive behaviour are always taken extremely seriously by the courts.
“Offences of this sort represent a sustained abuse of power and trust within intimate or family relationships and conduct of the kind that we find in this case can cause profound emotional and psychological harm.” He ordered Graham to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and to undertake 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days focusing on emotional regeneration, thinking processes, and healthy relationships.
