The terrified partner of a controlling and abusive man mouthed ‘help me’ to the police in a desperate bid to escape.
A 28-year-old woman, who has not been named, led a life of terror as her cheating bully of a partner made her ask for permission to bathe and use the internet her and beat her.
Controlling Nicholas Rea told the woman that she wasn’t allowed to leave after she packed her backs when she found about his affair with his now wife, Hull Live reported.
When he saw her in the street the 38-year-old from Bridlington, near Hull, shoved her and then dragged her back inside.
She told him: "I want to leave" but he said: "No, you're not leaving. Get home."
Police were called and attended the incident, when they were talking to the couple the terrified woman mouthed to them “help me now” before putting on a smile.
However later, whilst she was sitting on a sofa, Rea hit her across the head, kicked her in the mouth and dragged her around the room by her hair.
Despite all this, Rea avoided going to jail.
Appearing in Hull Crown Court, he admitted to assaulting her, and causing actual bodily harm around May last year.
Richard Thompson, prosecuting, said that Rea controlled his girlfriend’s behaviour.
He restricted her use of the internet or being able to bath unless he gave her permission to do so, and even used a door bell camera to monitor her every movement.
At the time, Rea had been in a relationship with another woman behind his girlfriend’s back and he has now married her.
In a statement about Rea’s behaviour, the woman said: "I am now easily startled and and all of this has changed me as a person".
She now suffers from nightmares, panic attacks and flashbacks and has not been eating properly.
Nigel Clive, mitigating, said that Rea had been suffering from problems at the time that needed tackling and he had done that.
"It was thoroughly shameful and persistent behaviour that this defendant demonstrated," said Mr Clive.
The offences were committed against the "backdrop of an unhappy relationship to which he will not return".
Rea married a second woman whom he had been secretly seeing at the time of the offences, in August last year.
The 30-year-old barmaid told the court in support of her husband that she had been "mortified" by his behaviour.
"It did take me a long time to kind of get my head round it," she said. "He was short-tempered before. He seems a lot calmer now.
“He will talk through a lot of things more now. He seems to be getting a lot better at communicating and talking about how he feels and stuff like that so he is not as stressed out.
"He was, at the time, controlling with me and then we sorted it out. Sometimes, he doesn't realise what he is doing until you point it out.
"Before, we would argue about stuff and wouldn't talk for two or three days. Now, we talk about it. It's like he has grown up.
"He has realised that you can't behave like that. I am quite outspoken to him and say: 'No, you can't do that'. It took a while to sink in. He is a lot different.
"He had a job as a delivery driver. He has been looking for a full-time job in Bolton. I have told him that if anything happens, that will be it. I have told him that this is his last chance. There are no chances after this. If he messes this up, that is it."
Judge Mark Bury told her: "You have taken a big gamble. You have invested a lot in this relationship."
He told Rea in relation to the assaults: "I hope you are ashamed of yourself. You appear to have undergone a sea change.
“You need to remember how inappropriately you have behaved in the past to people you are in a relationship with and make sure it remains in the past.
"This is the first day of the rest of your life.
“Regard yourself as lucky and don't blow the chance you have been given by the court or with your family."
Rea was given 150 hours' unpaid work and must do a Building Better Relationships course. He was given a two-year restraining order.
He was spared prison mainly because he had previously spent 27 days in custody on remand and 183 days on a curfew, which would have counted against a prison sentence.
