A helpless woman who was locked up every night and chained to her evil partner was held hostage in her own home during a 'reign of terror' for five years. Michael Cooper, 50 fitted bars to the windows and forced her to sleep in the loft as his prisoner, a court was told, the Mirror reports.
He restrained her by chaining her arm to his own and secured it with a padlock before she eventually managed to escape in June 2020 and called the police. The victim said Cooper has 'ruined my life' as the court heard she was locked up every night and even had to ask her abusive partner for permission to use the toilet.
In a statement from the victim read out in Preston Crown Court she revealed that she had lived in fear of being attacked and every aspect of her life was 'controlled' by Cooper. She stated: “I was living in constant fear of being assaulted, locked away, ridiculed and undermined.
"This was a day to day occurrence and my life was stressful beyond anything I have experienced before or since. I was refused to have friends or any kind of normal life.
"Michael controlled every aspect of my days to such an extent I wasn’t allowed to have social media. I became a shadow of my former self.
"I became a completely different person and despite being free from Michael’s clutches I haven’t been able to return to how I was before. He has ruined my life.”
Cooper, from Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, who admitted using controlling or coercive behaviour during a trial, was jailed for four years as a result of the abuse. Chloe Fordham, defending, said his behaviour was borne out of paranoia rather than malice.
However, Judge Darren Preston dismissed this defence and sentenced him to four years in prison. Addressing the defendant, the judge said: “Over a period of five years you made the life of your then partner an absolute misery.
"Like the complete and clearly pathetic and inadequate man you are, you belittled her, you assaulted her and you imprisoned her. This case was described as a ‘reign of terror’.
"It is difficult to imagine a more serious example of coercive control than your effective imprisonment of your partner. The damage you caused can not be under exaggerated. You inflicted untold damage.”
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