A dangerous thug is back on dating apps days after being convicted of assaulting a woman he met online.
Christopher Bolton, 43, dated Rachel Lynch, 24, after the pair met on romance app Bumble. He put a pillow over her face and stamped on her head.
To escape Bolton’s clutches, she ran into the street in her blood-soaked underwear. The police were called as neighbours shielded her from him. There was doorbell footage of that incident and two other incidents.
Now victim Rachel, who has a three year non-harassment order against the brute, is warning women to steer clear of the abuser. She said: “I thought he was going to kill me. I don’t know why he wasn’t charged with attempted murder.
“He was controlling and violent. I need to warn others about him. People need to be aware because he is back on Bumble and back on Tinder and that worries me, that somebody else might go through what I went through.”
In his dating app, Bolton, of Uddingston, Lanarkshire, says he is looking to avoid “controllers” and “nut jobs”. Rachel added: “The abuse happened once I had given up my flat and moved in with him. He pled guilty but is trying to sweep it under the carpet. This man is a danger. He’s violent and aggressive.”
Bolton pled guilty to the attacks and was convicted of Level One domestic abuse charges last week. Despite the severity of injuries Rachel sustained, he avoided jail. Instead, he was sentenced to 270 hours’ community service and ordered to take part in a year of social work supervision.
Rachel said: “He initially pled not guilty but changed to a guilty plea just before the trial. I was surprised by how lenient the sentencing was. He should have got a custodial sentence.
“Instead of a year in jail, he got 270 hours’ community service and a 12-month supervision order. I don’t know why that never got put as attempted murder. It was put as Section One domestic abuse. He pled guilty to all of that, physical, sexual, financial and controlling.”
The dad-of-two continues to seek women on Tinder and Bumble, brazenly demanding “no nut jobs” or “controllers”. Rachel added: “It’s alarming because he is a boiler salesman who will go into people’s homes to sell boilers and install them, which can take five hours.
“I wouldn’t want someone like that in my home. I dread to think if there is a woman who lives by herself and he is going into her home. It’s alarming.”
Rachel, who suffered concussion as part of the attack and had to be treated in hospital, said: “We were in a relationship from October 23 to June 24. He quickly persuaded me to give up my home and move in with him – then the abuse started.
“I lived with him in Uddingston and I suffered a lot of emotional and physical abuse. It got so bad I ended up in hospital. Even though he was out on bail, he was going through third parties and messaging work colleagues and trying to spread stories to my friends that I was making it all up.
“I couldn’t say anything in case it affected the court case. For seven months he led a smear campaign. Because they didn’t put him in jail I’ve a feeling he is trying to sweep it under the carpet. He is pretending nothing came of it.
“This guy has tried to make me a liar and blacken my name. Now that the court case is finished people need to know about what he’s done and be safe from him.”
Videos and photos shown in court reveal the extent of Rachel’s horrendous injuries. She said: “It began with a push, an argument, a shove here and there. It became more and more aggressive.
“He threw a chair and split my head open. He was controlling everything about my life. He isolated me from friends and family. The physical abuse got worse until that night in June he nearly killed me. He put a pillow over my face and broke my teeth.”
“I was covered in bruises. My hair was ripped out. He owes me money and tried to steal my credit card. He would batter into me. His two kids, aged 14 and 20, witnessed this.
“He took money from me to go to Turkey to get his own teeth done. Since then, he has been saying that I’m trying to make him out to be a monster and that he didn’t touch me. That I fell into a wardrobe.
“People don’t fall into wardrobes and have handprint bruises on them and a burst lip and broken teeth. He had beaten me up pretty badly at four in the morning. He woke me up to beat me up and put a pillow over my face. He was chasing me and I thought he was going to throw me down the stairs.
“I had to unlock the door as he was chasing me. I thought he was going to kill me. I had no clothes on. I ran to the neighbours in my bra and pants. I had to.”
A neighbour called the police and Rachel required scans for brain damage. “I had whiplash, my lip was bust, my tooth was chipped. Hair had been torn out my head. I had scratches and bruises all over me,” she added.
“I was in hospital for treatment and scans. They said I had a concussion. I was disoriented because I had been hit on the head so many times and because he stamped on my head. Yet he has shown no remorse.”
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