A man who subjected his girlfriend to years of abuse did so to “humiliate and degrade her”, a court heard.
Ryan Hunter, of Walton Lane, Walton, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday after being found guilty of two counts of engaging in controlling and coercive behaviour, and two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The 33-year-old previously pleaded guilty to two counts of producing cannabis and one count of abstracting electricity.
Martine Snowden, prosecuting, detailed that a trial heard how Hunter routinely subjected the victim to verbal abuse, often while their child was home. He routinely called his victim a “s**g” or a “sweat”, threatened to harm or kill her, controlled who she spoke to and limited her from seeing her family.
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Hunter deleted all male friends from the victim’s social media accounts, including family members, and demanded that she hand over her pay check which he then spent on gambling and takeaways. The court heard that at one point, Hunter had spent £4,000 of the victim’s money on gambling, but did manage to return £3,500 to her account.
During the trial, the victim described feeling like she had to say yes to all of Hunter’s demands, including doing his washing, cleaning, and cooking, as she knew the consequences would be bad if she did not. The 33-year-old also controlled the victim’s relationship with her family, ordering her to ask them for money and claiming that if they didn’t give any, he would not permit them to see their daughter.
Hunter “demanded” that the child he and the victim shared was given his surname, and used this to claim he could stop the victim from seeing her if she did not obey him. Hunter also left holes in the walls of their home as he had punched through them in fits of rage.
Text messages sent by the defendant were heard at trial, which showed Hunter telling the victim she was “lucky I don’t come up and smash your f***ing head in you little f***ing freak”, because she would not watch a TV show with him in the other room of the home.
Ms Snowden also detailed the two charges relating to production of cannabis, which came to light in 2019 after police discovered £7,800 worth of cannabis. She added that he would “make” the victim assist in the crime by bagging the cannabis.
In sentencing, Judge David Swinnerton said: “You controlled her life. Some of the behaviour was intended to maximise fear and distress, you used multiple methods of controlling and coercive behaviour.
“There was nothing sophisticated about it, but the conduct was intended to humiliate and degrade her." Hunter was sentenced to five years imprisonment and a restraining order barring him from contacting the victim was implemented indefinitely.
Forfeiture and destruction of the drugs was ordered. Following the sentence, Detective Inspector Ben Wayment of Merseyside Police said: “I would like to praise the courage and dignity shown by the victim throughout the investigation. This result shows that violence against women and girls will simply not be tolerated and we will work tirelessly to bring perpetrators to justice.
“While no sentence will repair the damage that Hunter’s abuse has caused, I hope today’s sentencing will not only provide his victim with justice, but also encourage other victims to come forward and have the confidence in us as a police force to take reports seriously, and ensure offenders are put before the courts so that they can pay for their crimes.
“We have a team of dedicated staff who will expertly and compassionately deal with your reports and we will do everything we can to bring offenders to justice and can pay for their crimes.”
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