A controlling boyfriend who terrorised his partner complained about her visiting her mother while she was battling cancer, used the Find My iPhone app to check up on her and posted a 'highly intimate' video of her on Snapchat. Lucas Roberts, now 23, quickly became controlling and abusive towards the girl, after the pair met online when they were both teenagers. She has now been left feeling suicidal and having to take anti-depressants.
For about three years she was subjected to a torrent of verbal abuse as well as violence, as possessive Roberts regularly demanded to know where she was. Her relationship with her mother is still 'strained', as she told how she would 'never forgive' herself for not being there for her mother as she underwent chemotherapy.
Roberts narrowly avoided jail after admitting displaying controlling and coercive behaviour. The pair first met on Facebook when Roberts was 16, and she was 15. They later met in person and started a relationship which was initially happy, Manchester Crown Court heard.
