A ‘perfect’ boyfriend turned out to be controlling and abusive towards his girlfriend as their relationship turned sour.
Ryan Summersgill threatened, pushed and spat at his girlfriend and ‘controlled the woman’s life’ as he restricted who she could speak to and smelled her to check for infidelity, reports Teesside Live.
The 31-year-old insisted on walking her to her mother’s address and would often check her Snapchat account and demanded she change her number so she couldn’t speak to her daughter in a serious of “disturbing” behaviours.
On one occasion the thug also ‘spat in her face’ which made her feel ‘dirty’. He also threatened to harm her family members. The Hemlington man appeared at Teesside Crown Court , via video link to Holme House Prison, wearing a grey jumper on Friday.
Jenny Hague, prosecuting, said that the defendant was in a relationship with the woman for a number of months, and at first it was “perfect”. However, last summer, things began to change and he would ‘overreact about small things’.
The Middlesbrough court heard how he branded the woman a ‘s***’ during one incident, and she became ‘frightened’. In October, the pair attended a party and when they returned home Summersgill turned violent.
Ms Hague stated that the defendant was annoyed as the woman’s friends had been buying her drinks at the event, but not him. He then ‘spat in her face’ and ‘slapped’ his girlfriend.
The woman was scared to open up on what was happening to family or friends as Summersgill threatened to stab her dad. The woman believed the threat as Summersgill ‘slept with knives under the bed’.
Later in October, the couple went to Primrose Valley Holiday Park, in North Yorkshire, and during one day he ‘returned to the caravan drunk or on drugs’. “F****** let me in,” he demanded. Ms Hague added that when let into the accommodation he ‘fell head first into the oven’ then grabbed the woman ‘by the throat and pushed her backwards’.
The abuse continued and the week before Christmas, Summersgill wanted to borrow money off the woman. However, she refused and he threatened to tell her daughters about her Christmas presents, the court heard.
On Christmas Day, things didn’t change as he didn’t wake up so the woman took her daughter to a family gathering. As they returned home at 8.30p, he helped set up some of the child’s Christmas toys – but then became ‘irate’. Ms Hague told the court that the woman became ‘scared he’d hurt her’ and she tried to leave the property, but he ‘took the key out the door’.
Summersgill ‘grabbed the woman and pushed her, then smashed her phone and VR headset’. On Boxing day, Summersgill accused the woman of damaging his teeth and threatened to ‘smash her brother’s head in if she didn’t give him money’.
Summersgill, who previously pleaded guilty to controlling and coercive behaviour, has 21 convictions for 33 offences. Shaun Dryden, mitigating, stated that it was a “short lived relationship”.
He added that in August, last year, Summersgill’s mental health “declined” which was exacerbated by “drink and drug misuse”. The defence barrister stated that his client suffers from PTSD which stemmed from an “incident when he was younger”.
Recorder Kelbrick described Summersgill’s behaviour as “serious and significant”, with “disturbing” elements. He sentenced Summersgill, of Beckenham Gardens, to 15 months in prison suspended for two years.
He must also complete a 18 month drug rehabilitation programme and 40 rehabilitation activity requirement days.