HULL MAN JAILED FOR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND BIZARRE RITUAL
A THUG throttled his girlfriend and made her perform a “bizarre ritual” after a row over pizza, a court heard.Liam Morfitt was in a relationship with his victim between August 2012 and April this year, when the couple decided to go their separate ways.However, when Morfitt’s workplace suddenly went into “shutdown”, resulting in money problems, his former partner allowed him to live in her Hull home for two weeks.Philip Evans, prosecuting, told Hull Crown Court: “On August 29, notwithstanding the lack of funds, the defendant had been drinking all day.He returned to the complainant’s home at 11pm.”An argument erupted over a pizza, the details of which were not revealed.“Food and drink was thrown onto the floor,” said Mr Evans.“The complainant cleared up and the defendant was asked to leave.”As the victim attempted to call for a taxi, Morfitt grabbed her mobile phone out of her hand and threw it across the room, said Mr Evans.The phone would not turn on, added the prosecutor.“This meant she had no way of making a call to anyone or contacting the emergency services,” said Mr Evans.Morfitt, of Orchard Park, asked her for some money to pay for a taxi.Mr Evans said: “The complainant was prepared to go to a cash machine.“The defendant says, ‘You are not going anywhere’.
He had locked the back door and kept the key in his pocket.”Morfitt asked the woman again for money and her bank card.
She refused and tried to go upstairs to bed.“A mirror that was in the bedroom was broken,” said Mr Evans.
“The defendant said he had brushed past it and it had fallen off.”Morfitt came back downstairs and there was an argument about the broken mirror.“She pushed the defendant slightly and he said, ‘Do not lay a hand on me’,” said Mr Evans.
“He then stepped back and said, ‘This has been a long time coming’, and grabbed her by the hair and pushed her back into the living room.
She ended up on her knees.”The woman tried to escape, but found both the front and back doors had been locked.“She tried to climb out of the kitchen window,” said Mr Evans.
“But he pulled her back by the feet.”Mr Evans described how Morfitt, now in the living room, placed his hands around the woman’s throat.“She gasped, trying to say, ‘Please.
Stop’, but she was scarcely able to get the words out,” said the prosecutor.“She says the grip was really tight, that it continued for less than a minute, but she says it felt like forever.“She says she felt her eyes start to roll and she almost collapsed into unconsciousness.”The attack continued upstairs.“He grabbed hold of her throat and said menacingly to her, ‘You have met the wrong guy to be with.
It ends when I ******* say it ends, do you understand?'”Morfitt also threatened to murder her.Mr Evans said: “He made her engage in a bizarre ritual whereby he required her to put her hands in the air.
He said, ‘You swear down that you want your mother to die within five years’.”Fearing further violence, the woman complied.Morfitt, 24, pleaded guilty to false imprisonment, making threats to kill, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and criminal damage.Ian Phillips, mitigating, said his client regretted his “appalling behaviour”.Recorder Angus Withington jailed Morfitt for 20 months and issued a five-year restraining order, prohibiting him from contacting his victim.
