A thug told his then-partner she would be the "next Katie Piper" after years of horrific abuse.
Luke Coleman, 28, of Banner Street, Wigan had been in a relationship with the woman for a number of years which was "characterised" by physical and emotional abuse. During the two year period, police were called out 31 times following reports of violence or threats to violence.
Appearing before Manchester Crown Court, Gwen Henshaw, prosecuting, said that in one incident in January 2021, Coleman smashed the woman’s mobile phone onto her head and caused a wound that had to be glued. He hit her with such force the phone screen smashed, Manchester Evening News reported.
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In April, an argument occurred when she said she needed to go the shop, but while out, he grabbed her face and strangled her. Despite attempts to intervene, he grabbed the woman's ears and shook her head.
The court heard how her ears had to be "stuck back together again". Upon entering the shop for tissue for the blood, Coleman followed her and attacked her, punching her while she was on the ground.
Another incident in January 2022 saw him dislocate her finger when she refused to take their puppy out before it had its necessary vaccinations. Ms Henshaw added how between October 2020 and April 2022, Coleman was abusive and controlling towards the woman.
In a victim personal statement read to the court, she said: "He said I would look like Katie Piper. I later realised that she was the victim of an acid attack."
The court heard how another time, Coleman punched the woman, pulled her hair and kicked her ribs before punching himself to the lip and saying they should go to hospital together and tell medical staff they had fallen off the quad bike. He also threatened to pour petrol over her mum, and that he would damage her family home.
Ms Henshaw added: "He would always put her down and call her names. He monitored her whereabouts by making her film her surroundings to prove where she was and would restrict her access to her own bank card and mobile phone."
Coleman also made her take a Polygraph test to prove she wasn’t being unfaithful, and when she passed the test, he accused her of paying off the examiner. In a statement, the woman's mum said: "He has completely changed my daughter’s life. She is not the person she used to be because of it."
The woman said she had never been in a relationship as ‘bad as this’, stating she was ‘petrified’ of Coleman, who has 30 previous convictions including for various assaults.
Defence Counsel Henry Blackshaw said the couple were ‘clearly in a destructive relationship’ and that his client had issues controlling his temper. He said he had a difficult family life, and was essentially homeless for a while. He told the court: "Both should move on to happier relationships rather than harmful ones."
Sentencing, Judge Timothy Smith said: "Overall you have shown yourself to be manipulative, controlling, with a sense of entitlement and arrogance. You are the definition of a bully fuelled by inferiority and jealousy, characterised by maintaining control and dominance over a person with whom you are in a relationship with."
Coleman was jailed for three-and-a-half years, for three offences of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and engaging in controlling and coercive behaviour. He was also banned from contacting his ex and her family indefinitely.
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