A sadistic 'monster' left his girlfriend fearing for her life after subjecting her to a terrifying attack in a Travelodge hotel room. Sean Mellin's victim described him as being 'demonic' and behaving like a man possessed during the appalling ordeal, in which she was repeatedly strangled.
The 30-year-old woman had previously been attacked by Mellin, 40, but felt he wouldn't continue his behaviour in a hotel where members of the public were close by. But after an argument in the privacy of their room, Mellin 'bullied and 'brutalised' her and 'enjoyed' inflicting pain, Manchester Crown Court heard.
"She genuinely believed she was going to die that night at your hand," the judge, Recorder Imran Shafi KC told Mellin. "I am entirely satisfied that you are a dangerous man."
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Prosecutors told how the couple were both drinking and taking drugs at the hotel in River Street, Bolton, after staying there for a few nights in August last year. After an argument Mellin exploded on August 22. He grabbed her throat and choked her with such force that she vomited.
He accused her of 'faking' being sick before grabbing her by the throat again, prosecutor Mark Pritchard said. Mellin then let go and grabbed her hair and kicked her to the face. He dragged her around the room and smashed her head into the wall.
He grabbed her by the throat again and held her nose so she couldn't breathe. Mellin paused his attack and the pair went to sleep.
She tried to creep out of the hotel room but when Mellin woke up, she pretended she needed to go to the bathroom. He followed her and questioned whether she actually needed the toilet.
Mellin then jumped on her, 'pinning' her to the toilet. "I'm going to kill you if you don't have a wee now," he warned her, banging her head against the toilet.
Mellin later fell asleep and she was able to flee and get help. "Your behaviour that day was beyond disgraceful," the judge told him. "You bullied and brutalised your partner.
"I have no doubt that you enjoyed controlling, hurting and humiliating her. You are obviously much stronger than her and you made sure she knew about it.
"It is plain to see that your actions that day will have had a profound effect upon your victim." She told how the couple had been together since the first Covid lockdown in 2020 which 'trapped' them together.
She described Mellin as having a 'big belly' and being 'strong and broad'. "He knew he was stronger than me and he knew I was frightened of him," the woman said in a statement read in court.
"He new I was trying to leave him and became angrier than ever. I thought if I was nice to him he would be better. I thought it wouldn't hurt me in a hotel.
"The rage in his face, he is like a monster, like a demon. I thought I was going to die. He was torturing me.
"He turned himself into some kind of demon. I had a vision of my lying dead on the bed.
"All I felt was pure fear. I thought I was going to end up like a cabbage."
She said Mellin appeared 'demonic'. "It was likely something had possessed him," she added.
Defending, Clare Ashcroft said Mellin's behaviour was 'inexcusable' and said he is 'remorseful'. But the judge told him: "I don't accept that you are remorseful in the slightest."
Mellin, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to strangulation and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He was jailed for three years and seven months.
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