These are some of the men whose attacks, manipulative ways and obsessive, controlling behaviour have landed them in the dock. Abuse against women is sadly a common feature of cases heard both before the crown and magistrates' courts.
From physical injury to psychological pain, the impact of this offending can stay with the victim for life. And Greater Manchester, like much of the country, sees far too many of these cases.
From a thug who tried to blind his ex so she couldn’t see other men, to a rapist burglar, here are ten men who every woman in Greater Manchester should know about.
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Ashley Geraghty
Geraghty and his former partner had been together for some time but broke up after he was unfaithful. However, they continued their relationship and shortly after she fell pregnant.
He began drinking more and using drugs, and was put on an electronic tag to live and sleep at her address in Irlam. Little did she know that he had already attacked a previous partner.
His tag meant the woman was effectively ‘imprisoned’ with Geraghty, 35, which meant that she couldn’t escape when things came to a head when she was eight-months-pregnant. After confronting him about his drinking, the couple began to argue with Geraghty threatening: “If you ring the police, I will kill you.”
He then pushed her to the floor and kicked her four times to the stomach. Continuing the cruel attack, he dragged her by the hair into the kitchen before punching her and causing a black eye.
The victim managed to get into the back garden where he was unable to go due to his tag, and, despite him not allowing her to use her phone as he thought she would call the police, he allowed her to call his mum instead. Manchester Crown Court heard of other incidents, including one where he strangled her and another where he smashed her window, despite her having a restraining order out against him.
Geraghty, of Wordsworth Avenue, Leigh, was jailed for four years and three months in April and banned from contacting the woman in any way for 10 years under the terms of a restraining order, after pleading guilty to two offences of assault occasioning ABH.
Lucas Roberts
Roberts quickly became controlling and abusive towards his ex after the pair met online when they were both teenagers. He 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.
The woman was subjected to a torrent of verbal abuse as well as violence as Roberts, 23, 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.
On other occasions, Roberts told her that if she had a spray tan, as some of her friends did for the event, that he would break up with her. And, after a row, Roberts made vile threats, telling her 'I'm going to get a few guys in a van to rape you', and also said he would 'dig up her grandma's grave and put her in it'.
He also bought her an iPhone, and said she should only use it to contact him. He used the phone's 'Find My' app to track her on one occasion while she was out shopping. Later he demanded that she send him 'highly intimate' naked videos of herself, which he later posted on Snapchat to a group of friends in 'revenge' after they broke up.
Then, when she got into a new relationship, Roberts began to harass his ex and her new partner, issuing threats and on one occasion turning up outside her house. Roberts, of Blackpool, was sentenced to 20 months in prison, suspended for two years in April, after admitting offences of putting a person in fear of violence by harassment, and disclosing private sexual images with intent to cause distress.
He was also ordered to complete the Building Better Relationships course, undertake 200 hours of unpaid work and to pay his former partner £1,500 in compensation
Marc Berry
Berry got into a relationship with his girlfriend in July 2021 after being ‘long-time friends’. However, when she was getting ready for a night out, he told her ‘you’re not going nowhere’.
Berry, 35, then grabbed the woman by the throat and pushed her into a wall. The woman was struggling to breathe and, even after releasing his grip, it took her a number of minutes to be able to talk again.
She told him that she wanted to end the relationship but he cried and apologised. He didn’t let her leave for two hours until she promised to come back later.
Later that evening, the woman became aware that Berry was tracking her phone. He turned up outside the bar she was in and told her to come out or he’d ‘drag her out by her hair’.
The woman came outside to meet Berry and left with him, but disabled the tracking app on her phone. Later that month, on August 21, Berry threw hot coffee in his girlfriend’s face after she turned up at his flat.
He asked her why she had turned the tracker off and started punching and kicking walls, again telling her “you aren’t going nowhere” as she tried to leave the room. On another occasion Berry spat in her face, and on another incident he strangled her with both hands in front of her daughter.
Berry, of Glendower Drive, Collyhurst, pleaded guilty to coercive and controlling behaviour, a Section 47 assault, harassment and three common assaults and was handed a suspended sentence in February. He was also to complete the ‘Building Better Relationships’ programme and attend 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days.
Berry will also have to do 120 hours of unpaid work.
Aston Greenwood
Greenwood smashed his way into his ex-girlfriend’s home in the middle of the night as she slept. He then launched a sickening attack upon her.
The 33-year-old repeatedly hit her over the head with a guitar and a glass lamp, before using broken shards of glass as he 'tried to blind her' so she couldn't look at other men. Just before police arrived and stopped him, Greenwood told his ex: "You didn’t think I’d come through your house to murder you, did you?"
During the attack, he stabbed her in the leg with a screwdriver before 'ripping off' her underwear and twice punching her to the genitals. The brutal attack was the culmination of five years of controlling behaviour, during which he 'bullied, terrorised, belittled and isolated' her.
During their on-off relationship, 'Jekyll and Hyde' Greenwood continually accused her of being unfaithful to him, but he was actually cheating on her. When she dared to question him about his infidelity, Greenwood attacked her.
He criticised what she wore, calling her a 'slag' if he thought her outfit was too revealing, wouldn't let her use Facebook or WhatsApp and didn't allow her to socialise without him being present. She lost count of the number of black eyes she suffered during repeated attacks, but was too scared to report Greenwood to police as he had threatened to kill her if she did.
Greenwood's campaign of abuse culminated in the horrifying attack in her own home in Blackley. In the weeks prior, Greenwood had been sending menacing text messages to her. The pair were not in a relationship at that time.
"The second I find out you are with someone you are dead...it will end with you in a body bag," one chilling text read.
Greenwood, of Lancaster Street, Oldham, pleaded guilty to wounding with intent, controlling or coercive behaviour, two counts of assault and making threats to kill. He received a 20 year extended sentence, including 15 years in prison and an extra five years on licence in March.
Michael Huyton
Bodybuilder Huyton had been drinking with his girlfriend when things became heated. After becoming irritated by her playing loud music, he told her she had ‘ruined the night’ before she went to bed.
About a minute later, he came upstairs to ask where his cigarettes and lighter were. Huyton then ripped the covers off the woman to search the bed.
After ordering a takeaway at around 10pm, Huyton, 35, started verbally abusing her before launching the food across the room. As she tried to get to her work phone, he snatched it from her and threw it against a wall.
He then threw her handbag across the room, and as she went to retrieve her personal phone and leave, he pushed her down onto the bed with such force that it snapped. He then told her to pack a suitcase for him, before emptying it and telling her to ‘pack it f****** neater’.
When she tried to leave once more, Huyton threw her to the bed, got on top of her and started to strangle her. He released his grip after around five seconds and eventually let the woman leave the room when she told him she needed the toilet.
She ran to a neighbour’s front garden in her bare feet but Huyton was seen on CCTV following her, getting her in a headlock and trying to wrestle her phone away, before throwing her to the ground.
Huyton, of Leigh Road, Atherton, admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm and was handed a suspended sentence in March. He was handed a restraining order prohibiting him from contacting the woman or visiting her street. Huyton will also have to complete 100 hours of unpaid work, 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days, and the Building Better Relationships course.
For the next three months, he will also be subject to an electronically monitored curfew between the hours of 7pm and 6am each day.
Brian Brough
Brough, 35, went to his 60-year-old victim's house in Little Hulton on March 19 last year at around 9pm pretending to be a relative of a neighbour. He then asked to use the bathroom and the woman agreed, with Brough letting himself inside, hanging his coat up and going to the toilet.
He followed her into the living room and sat next to her on the sofa before putting his arm around her. Brough told her he was a male escort and asked whether she wanted to pay for sex with him.
The woman declined before he exposed himself and forced her to perform oral sex on him. She tried to fight him off but he struck her to the face and dragged her to the bedroom by her hair.
He then raped her and attempted to rape her anally. Throughout the attack, he repeatedly beat her knocking her unconscious and fracturing her eye socket, nose and jaw.
Having raped and beaten her, leaving her battered and unconscious, he stole her phones, tobacco, chocolates and alcohol before leaving. Following a trial in November last year, Brough was convicted unanimously by a jury of section 18 grievous bodily harm, rape, attempted rape and burglary.
Brough had refused to attend his trial, and was not represented. Brough, of no fixed abode, was jailed for 18 years with an extended licence period of four years in March.
Thomas Naughton
Naughton’s grievance with his victim began in 2019 following a row about some bespoke blinds he had ordered from her business. He was asked to pay a 50 percent deposit, which he said he couldn’t afford, instead paying £150 and owing £400.
The blinds were made and the company had no more contact with Naughton until November that year, when he said he would pay another £100 via Paypal as a ‘holding payment’. The following month, Naughton contacted the victim asking to be reimbursed, however the blinds were bespoke and had already been made.
Naughton, 41, paid £140 to the business but then sent a message to the victim claiming it had been a mistake and he needed the money back. When he was reminded of the outstanding balance, he became abusive towards the victim’s partner stating “Give me the money back by 5pm or you will be ruined”.
He then called the two women ‘fat d****’, fat c****’ and ‘fat b*******. He went on to make repeated attempts to call the victim, making more than 100 calls over a two-day period and posting comments on the business Facebook page claiming they were ‘scammers’.
On September 9 he went ‘in person’ to North Wales looking for the victim’s address. In the early hours of the morning he visited an address where he thought she lived and “kicked at the door” until a woman answered.
He demanded £800 and took mail from the address. He continued making threats towards her, including about her weight and sexuality.
The victim made 101 separate crime reports to police during the course of the offending. Naughton, of Witham Street, Oldham, pleaded guilty to harassment and theft and was jailed for 33 months in January this year.
Ziabul Miah
Miah married his wife in Bangladesh in 2015, and for three years it remained long distance, but after she moved to the UK it became ‘negative’. The couple were living in Oldham when they got into an argument about online banking after she had asked him to buy medication for one of their children.
Miah, 43, grabbed her by the throat and strangled her until she pushed him away with her leg. He then picked up a toy car and hit her in the eye and head, before using a scooter to do the same.
His victim was eventually knocked to the floor and Miah stood on her neck until she stopped moving. She believed he only stopped because he thought she was dead, Bolton Crown Court heard.
The assault lasted for around two hours and only came to an end when she managed to run to a neighbours house for help.
He will have to complete 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days. A restraining order was also imposed, prohibiting him from contacting his victim or going within 100 metres of her for the next five years.
Charles Goodwin
Goodwin described himself as a ‘sex god’. But following a trial he was convicted of raping two women and sexually assaulting another.
The 21-year-old's first victim was a student in Manchester, the court heard, and his second was a student in Liverpool. Liverpool Crown Court was previously told how he raped his first victim three times - after saying she needed 'to be treated like a princess' and picking her up and carrying her.
She said Goodwin began sexually assaulting her in a taxi on the way to her home and when they got there he immediately stripped naked. They had consensual sex but he then became aggressive, calling her names and began choking and repeatedly raping her.
He admitted calling his victim 'my dirty little s**t, my whore' but said 'it was an attempt at foreplay, it was reciprocated…..it turned me on'.
A judge told him: "Part of your modus operandi was to encourage the victims to drink as much alcohol as possible so that they would lower their defences and in one case, to ply her with so much alcohol that she did not know what she doing, so that you could take advantage of their vulnerability.’
Goodwin, of Hilbre Street, Liverpool, but formerly of Salford, had been found guilty of three charges of raping one student in Manchester, raping another woman in Liverpool and sexually assaulting a third student just three days later. He was jailed for 17 years in March.
Amanuel Tsegay
Tsegay attacked a woman after she became separated from friends following a night out in Preston in September 2019. She was walking along Lancaster Road when she was approached by him at its junction with Harris Street.
After a brief interaction they walked together onto Lord Street, where Tsegay raped her on a grassed area.
"Before the attack I was quite independent," she said in an emotive victim impact statement read out in court. "What he did has changed all that. I don't feel happy and carefree like I was.
After viewing CCTV footage and following a media appeal, Lancashire Police were able to trace another victim, aged 19, who Tsegay had grabbed and sexually assaulted on the same night, when she offered him some food.
Tsegay, 37, from Lords Avenue in Weaste, Salford, pleaded guilty to rape and sexual assault. He was jailed in May for 12 years and seven months.
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