LANDSCAPE GARDENER COERCED TEACHER LOVER FOR YEARS BEFORE TRYING TO BREAK HER NECK
Update 28/02/2026: Robert Easom, 57, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.Robert violently assaulted Trudi Burgess, a schoolteacher and former singer, when she threatened to leave him after enduring eight years of coercive, controlling behaviour.
He pinned Burgess down in a rage and pushed her head into her body until her neck snapped.
He denied a charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent but was found guilty after 27 minutes of deliberation by a jury at Preston crown court in November.
He had admitted causing the injury but denied intending to cause her serious harm.
Burgess suffered a complete spinal cord injury and is now tetraplegic.
She will never walk again, requires continuous care, is in constant pain, cannot cough without help, has no use of her hands and no control over her bladder and bowel functions.
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A landscape gardener who broke his girlfriend’s neck and left her paralyzed when she threatened to leave him was violent and coercive towards her for eight years, it emerged on Monday.
Robert Easom was found guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm on Trudi Burgess, 56, after he severed her spinal cord in a “brutal” attack leaving her tetraplegic.
In the assault in February 2025 at Easom’s home in the village of Chipping, Lancashire, he flew into “an uncontrollable rage” when she suggested they break up.
Ms Burgess, a teacher, described hearing a “crack” before her body went numb.
However, it was revealed on Monday that Easom also admitted to engaging in coercive and controlling behaviour between July 2017 and February 2025, as well as two offences of inflicting actual bodily harm.
Preston Crown Court heard that Easom, who will be sentenced in February 2026, was a “bully” who assaulted Ms Burgess throughout their eight-year relationship.
Logging the abuse in the notes section of her phone, Ms Burgess described how Easom eroded her self-esteem and she became trapped in a cycle of abuse.
He forced her to clean up spilt food, pushed her against furniture, drove dangerously to frighten her, shouted at her and headbutted her.
Seven months into their relationship, Easom “switched” into a rage where he dragged her around a bathroom threatening her during a trip to York.
He quoted a line from the film Rambo, telling her: “Don’t push or I’ll give you a war.” When she tried to leave, he begged her to stay and acted remorseful.
In another incident in 2019, Easom grabbed her wine, slammed a fridge door and shouted before dragging her upstairs by the head, banging her against each step.
In 2021, he placed a sheet over her head and strangled her, leaving her terrified for her life.
The next day, he dismissed the attack, claiming he was “just trying to teach her a lesson”.
On Feb 17 2025 Ms Burgess “finally plucked up the courage to leave” when his violent attack left her paralysed.
The widowed mother of two said she thought she was going to die during the bedroom assault.
Ms Burgess said that she was on the bed on her knees when Easom pinned her down and shouted abuse at her.
She told the court: “I started to scream ‘don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me’ but he was like the Hulk in those rages.
“It happened so fast.
He put both his hands on the top of the back of my head and started to push down.
I tried to scream but I could not scream.
I have never felt a force like it.
He pushed my head down and down and I could not say ‘stop’.
“I tried to say ‘you are killing me’ but he kept pushing down and I felt like my head was being folded into my body.
I heard a crack and had the feeling of all feeling going out of my body.
I was going numb with each crack.
Ms Burgess, who now requires specialist care, told the court she is in constant pain and described her body as feeling like she is in a “suit of armour that is two sizes too small”.
DC Bethanie Kirk, from the Burnley Vulnerable Adults Team, said: “Robert Easom is a manipulative and controlling individual with a warped sense of entitlement and repulsive views towards women.
He poses a significant risk due to his violent and abusive behaviour.
I welcome these convictions, which expose his abhorrent conduct for all to see.
“I want to commend the victim for her incredible bravery in coming forward and trusting Lancashire Police to protect her and bring Easom to justice.
His cowardly and sustained abuse has had a profound and lasting impact on her life and her loved ones.
I hope she can now begin rebuilding her life, free from his control.”
