A self-confessed ‘crazy man’ punched his pregnant girlfriend five times after urging her to take her own life. Ionut-sorin Matei, 35, carried out the 'abhorrent attack' when she was seven months pregnant with their child.
Matei had ‘entrenched cultural views on roles within a couple’ which led to a toxic and abusive relationship with his now ex-partner, Manchester Crown Court heard. He had been in an on-off relationship with the woman since 2020, in which she described him as ‘unpredictable’ and obsessed with the idea of her cheating on him.
He was verbally abusive towards her, calling her names such as ‘w***e’, ‘waste of space’ and ‘s**t mum’, a court heard. Throughout the relationship he attempted to control who she spoke to, not allowing her to speak to neighbours and telling her to block friends on Facebook.
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During one argument in June 2021, he again accused her of cheating on him, and the woman got up and began to self harm, prosecutor Michael Goldwater said. “The defendant responded: 'That’s rubbish” and gestured at a throat being cut,”'he said.
“He told her to jump out of the window and said if she was going to do anything stupid, she should do it when he was not there.”
Four days later he went to her flat and told her to wash the dishes, complained that his dinner wasn’t cooked, and that she hadn’t brought him a beer. He then threatened to hit her with a beer bottle and as she walked away from him he followed her, and backed her against the wall.
At this point the woman ended the relationship and later called him on July 17 to tell him to collect his belongings. He turned up drunk and said if she wanted him to leave she should call a taxi. Instead the woman called the police and he was arrested.
In January this year, he was due to stand trial for the offence of engaging in controlling or coercive behaviour, but failed to attend at Manchester Magistrates’ Court.
Later, in March, he had moved back in with the woman as he was homeless. She was seven months pregnant with their child at the time.
Following a number of arguments with him accusing her of being unfaithful, she left her flat on numerous occasions to allow him to ‘calm down’. However, it was during one of these times that she went into the communal hallways whilst video calling a friend, that Matei launched the ‘abhorrent attack’.
“The defendant came towards her and punched her five times. This was captured on CCTV. The blows landed around the middle of her body,” Mr Goldwater said.
In a statement, the victim said: “I am frightened about what he may do because he always threatens me. I do not want him to be able to contact me because he always has a way of getting back into my head.
“I feel if he gets a chance to speak to me, I may fall back into a relationship with him. I feel he has been manipulating and controlling throughout our relationship and I want to move on from this.”
Matei was said to have no previous convictions. He was said to have moved over from Romania four years ago and began the relationship with the woman three years ago.
His barrister, Sacha Waxman, said that ‘jealousy very quickly ran deep’ after he alleged that one of their children was not his following a paternity test. “The relationship he describes is a toxic one, which was founded on distrust and dysfunction,” Ms Waxman said.
“This was exacerbated by his alcohol use.” She added that he accepted a ‘complete lack of sympathy for her mental health’.
“What he describes is that he is a crazy man, unable to control his own emotions. There are very entrenched cultural views about roles in the relationship,” she said.
Matei would often stay over at her house, and would have ‘views about how that should be and he vocalised that to her’. Ms Waxman added: “The pattern of behaviour and the belief system surrounding the gender roles and ingrained misogyny will not go away without the involvement of the probation service.”
Sentencing, Recorder Neil Usher said: “Over a period of time you subjected the victim to significant and prolonged verbal, mental, emotional and on some occasions, physical abuse, the effect of which will be on her for many years.
“You pose a high risk of serious harm towards future partners, and future partners and their children need to be protected from you - especially when you are in drink.”
Matei, of no fixed abode, was jailed for 23 months.
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