A manipulative bully vowed his partner would be the ‘next Katie Piper’ following years of vile abuse. Luke Coleman, 28, and the woman had been in a relationship for a number of years which was ‘characterised’ by physical and emotional abuse.
Coleman was possessive, constantly accused her of cheating on him and regularly assaulted her.
Over the two year period, there were 31 separate callouts to the police reporting violence or threats of violence, Manchester Crown Court heard.
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Gwen Henshaw, prosecuting, said that in one incident, in January 2021, Coleman smashed the woman’s mobile phone onto her head and caused a wound that had to be glued.
He hit the woman with such force that the phone screen smashed.
Then in April, an argument broke out when she said she had to go to the shop. He went with her and whilst out he grabbed at her face and strangled her.
“One passer-by who witnessed the scene asked him to stop,” Ms Henshaw said.
“He grabbed the victim's ears and shook her head. Her ear had to be stuck back together.”
The woman had to go into a local shop to get a tissue for the blood. Coleman followed her and attacked her again, punching her whilst she was on the ground.
The court was told of a further incident in January 2022, in which he asked to take her puppy outside before it had its necessary vaccinations, and so she refused.
In response he grabbed her right hand and bent her finger back causing it to become dislocated.
Ms Henshaw described how between October 2020 and April 2022, Coleman was abusive and controlling towards the woman.
Reading from the woman’s statement, she said: “He said I would look like Katie Piper. I later realised that she was the victim of an acid attack.”
“He had threatened to throw acid on her face,” the prosecutor said.
The woman detailed an incident in which he had punched her to the face, pulled her hair and kicked her ribs. He then punched himself in the lip and then said they should go to hospital together and tell medical staff they had fallen off a quad bike.
Coleman also threatened to use violence towards her family, saying he would pour petrol over her mum, and that he would damage her family home.
He also went to her friends’ houses and would bang on the windows ‘looking’ for the woman, she said.
“He would always put her down and call her names. He monitored her whereabouts by making her film her surroundings to prove where she was and would restrict her access to her own bank card and mobile phone,” Ms Henshaw added.
Coleman also made her take a Polygraph test to prove she wasn’t being unfaithful, and when she passed the test, he accused her of paying off the examiner.
“He has completely changed my daughter’s life. She is not the person she used to be because of it,” her mum said in a statement.
The woman said she had never been in a relationship as ‘bad as this’, stating she was ‘petrified’ of Coleman.
Coleman was said to have 30 previous convictions for 71 offences including for various assaults.
Mitigating for Coleman, Henry Blackshaw said the couple were ‘clearly in a destructive relationship’ and that his client had issues controlling his temper.
He said he had a difficult family life, and was essentially homeless for a while.
“Both should move on to happier relationships rather than harmful ones,” Mr Blackshaw added.
Sentencing, Judge Timothy Smith said: “Overall you have shown yourself to be manipulative, controlling, with a sense of entitlement and arrogance.
“You are the definition of a bully fuelled by inferiority and jealousy, characterised by maintaining control and dominance over a person with whom you are in a relationship with.”
Coleman, of Banner Street, Ince, was jailed for three-and-a-half years, for three offences of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and engaging in controlling and coercive behaviour. He was also banned from contacting his ex and her family indefinitely.
