A control freak who left his partner living in fear he would kill her has been jailed.
Gordon Glass began a relationship with the woman in June 2023 and she said things were initially problem-free, although on occasions he would ask her to send photographs showing where she was at any given time, which she didn’t mind at first.
However in May last year he became controlling towards her, having begun working in Preston during the week. Ellen Wright, prosecuting, told Newcastle Crown Court: “When he was working away he would made requests that she send a picture holding five fingers up to prove she was at home when she said she was.
“When she was at work she had to send him pictures on her break with time stamps and constantly text him throughout her work break to satisfy him that she was not texting anyone else while on her break.
“There were occasions he would form a belief she was taking too long to reply to texts and would become verbally abusive to her.” Miss Wright said that when Glass was home at weekends, he would insist she spent time with nobody else but him, such that she felt unable to see friends or book hair or nail appointments.
Between May and June last year, she said he “bombarded” her with texts and calls and she, in fear, had given him permission to track her phone. On June 12, she had arranged to meet her friend who’d had a baby. Miss Wright said: “The defendant demanded she send a picture of the baby to prove where she was.
“She did send a picture of the baby but when she did so the defendant became angry, saying the baby appeared younger than she had told him it was. She had said it was five months old and the defendant said it looked newborn and this led to an argument.”
The court heard Glass, 43, would frequently monitor the woman’s social media usage and made demands to know who she was messaging and asked to read messages she had sent.
On June 21, he became irate that she had deleted messages to a friend which he wanted to read and he threatened to travel from Preston to her home. At 1.30am, she heard banging on her front door and when she looked at her phone saw she had around 60 missed calls from Glass.
Miss Wright told the court: “He was outside the door, shouting that she was a liar and a ****. The defendant tried to crawl through her window but then he became aware her ex partner was in the house. Her ex partner was in the house because she had been supporting him with a cancer diagnosis.”
Glass demanded the woman drive him to McDonald’s at Westerhope, in Newcastle, which she did out of fear of what would happen if she didn’t. Miss Wright said: “On arrival she parked up and he demanded to see her phone and threatened to snap her jaw if she didn’t hand over her phone.”
On searching through her phone, Glass found a message from a male friend which made him angry and he said he wanted to take the car to the man’s house to “put the car through his house”. He made her drive down the A1 towards the man’s house in Gateshead, verbally abusing her and spitting in her face as she did so.
He then smashed her phone off the centre console, damaging the phone and the car before throwing the phone out of the window on the motorway. The woman deliberately missed the turn off for her friend’s house because she was worried what would happen and Glass responded by grabbing the steering wheel to try to take control of the car and he pulled the handbrake, bringing it to an abrupt stop before threatening to snap her neck.
At this point the victim noticed a passing police officer and managed to shout for help. The officer said the victim was “crying hysterically” and shouting for help. Even after police were with her, Glass continued being verbally abusive.
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The woman said in a victim impact statement that since the offences she has “become a different person”, adding: “I’ve been unable to be alone in the house or answer the door or phone and I’m fanatical about locking windows and doors.
“I have recurring bad dreams where I’m woken up by him knocking on the door. I’m triggered into anxiety by sudden movements and loud noises and I regularly believe I see his face when I’m out.
“I feel his spit on my face and his hands on me. I constantly look for exits to get out of places.
“What he did to me will stay with me forever and will no doubt impact future relationships. He might get a sentence but mine is a life sentence that will not leave me.
“It’s had a huge impact on my mental health. Some days I would feel like I don’t want to be here. I constantly have the thought I might have died that night. I believed that night he would kill me and I believed he would come back and finish what he started. I genuinely believed I would not see Christmas.”
She added: “Every aspect of my life was controlled. He took away so much from me.
“To lose control is the worst feeling in the world. I hope prison give him an insight into what that’s like.”
Glass, of no fixed address, who has 12 previous convictions, admitted controlling or coercive behaviour, assault by beating and two counts of criminal damage. He was jailed for two years and given a restraining order.
His barrister said he is remorseful and “fully acknowledges his behaviour is utterly reprehensible”. The court was told he is “motivated to live an offence-free lifestyle” and has tried to rehabilitate himself while remanded in custody for the past six months.
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