A thug with an attitude that ‘belongs in the Stone Age’ grabbed his ex by the neck and threatened to kill her so ‘nobody else could have her’. Michael O’Neill, 37, met the woman on Facebook while he was in prison and the pair entered into a relationship.
It continued when he was released last year, but turned sour. He became controlling and abusive.
O’Neill repeatedly checked her phone, made threats to kill her and even threatened to throw acid in her face so ‘nobody else would want her’, Minshull Street Crown Court heard.
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The woman ended the relationship on January 11 this year after she received a message from another woman saying O’Neill had been cheating on her.
Katy Laverty, prosecuting, said: “The defendant grabbed her neck and slapped her in the face whilst shouting 'I’m going to kill you so nobody else can have you'.
“She states she did not believe it was a genuine threat and assumed he was angry she had ended the relationship.”
The woman didn’t initially report the assault to the police. The next day cops were called by the woman’s mother after O’Neill turned up at their house.
She had asked him if she could use her own own and he threw it at her face, hissing: “You want your f***ing phone back? Here, have it.”
She was left with swelling to her face and has a permanent scar over her eye.
The court heard O’Neill sent numerous abusive messages to the woman’s ex-partner. He said he knew where the man worked and lived, where his mum and family lived and that would ‘smash the s**t out of every one of [them]’.
He sent the man pictures of a machete, with a message reading: “I’m going to put this through you, on my son’s grave.” He also threatened to ‘beat him like a b***h’ and made threats to ‘kick his child around like a football’.
O’Neill also sent indecent images of the woman to the man, and a photograph of the machete with the man’s name on.
In February, O’Neill smashed the front window of the woman’s house. He was arrested in March and found with a small bag of cocaine.
“I feel too scared to go into my own house,” the woman said in a statement. “I’m terrified of him turning back up at my house, he’s very unpredictable and he’s not the person I thought he was.
“Ever since we split up I’m constantly looking over my shoulder, worrying that he’s following me. I don’t deserve to be assaulted and I don’t deserve to be so scared to live my life.”
O’Neill was said to have 22 previous convictions for 38 offences. In 2019, he was jailed for seven years for robbery; possession of a blade; and wounding.
Mitigating, Emily Potter said O’Neill, who wept throughout the hearing, was ‘very ashamed of his actions’. She said he had struggled following the death of his son aged 14 from an undiagnosed heart condition.
“The death was shocking and had a significant impact on the defendant's mental health,” she said.
“That, combined with his ADHD diagnoses, sent him into a spiral and he took cocaine to self medicate.
“He felt he was in a bad place at the time and felt up and down and couldn’t think straight. It’s not an excuse but an explanation.”
The judge, Recorder Imran Shafi KC said: “You used your physical superiority and menacing character to bully, intimidate and control her which is not acceptable in a civilised society. Your attitude belongs in the Stone Age.”
He said threats made to the woman’s ex-partner were ‘unfathomable’ considering the loss of his own son.
O’Neill, of Long Street, Middleton, was jailed for 22 months and banned from contacting his ex for five years - and another person for other matters - under the terms of a restraining order.
He previously pleaded guilty to criminal damage; sending indecent messages; assault occasioning actual bodily harm; possession of cocaine; and engaging in controlling or coercive behaviour. He admitted stalking in relation to another person.
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