Man jailed for 'terrifying' abuse of partner

A man who bit, strangled, punched and subjected his partner to a "terrifying episode of violence and torture" has been jailed for three years and two months.

Jack Allinson, 30, of Oak Grove in Northallerton, admitted one count of using controlling and coercive behaviour and one sample charge of intentional strangulation in which the victim lost consciousness.

Teesside Crown Court was told the behaviour took place between 2023 and 2025 when the couple lived together.

Jailing him, Judge Joanne Kidd said his attacks and controlling behaviour amounted to the mental "torture" of his victim who was subjected to "sustained, terrifying, potentially life-threatening assaults".

Prosecutor Michele Stuart-Lofthouse said the then-couple had begun a relationship in the summer of 2022 and were living in Northallerton.

She said the relationship was initially without incident but deteriorated due to Allinson's habitual heavy drinking and controlling behaviour.

"He started to control who she was able to be friends with and what she was able to wear," she said.

"He would often turn aggressive. He would often smoke cannabis (which) she would not allow in the address."

Stuart-Lofthouse said in one incident, in May 2023, Allinson had grabbed the woman around her throat and pushed her against a wall, causing a cut to her face which left a scar.

Two months later, he strangled her and bit her on the ear and in another incident, he smashed up her kitchen table, a dining chair, glass bottles and a clock, leaving shards of glass everywhere.

He then grabbed a canister and poured petrol all over her kitchen floor, living room and on the first two steps of the staircase.

Then, while standing in the doorway, he began flicking a lighter, threatening to set her house alight.

"She was petrified because she thought he would set fire to the address," Stuart-Lofthouse said.

She recounted other incidents involving Allison squeezing her neck with his arms until she passed out and punching her repeatedly in the face after pulling her to the ground.

She said in February 2024, the defendant had headbutted the victim and, in a separate incident had grabbed her around the neck and smashed her head against a mirror.

The victim reported him to police in late 2025 and Allinson was arrested in December.

In a statement read out by the prosecution, the victim, a mother-of-three, said she had been "constantly living in fear".

"I feared for my life. I was headbutted, punched, bitten. These assaults caused me pain, injury and significant emotional trauma."

She now suffered from nightmares from which she would wake "with tears running down my face".

"Jack made serious threats to me and told me he would kill me," she added.

"These threats caused me extreme fear and distress."

Allinson had 15 previous offences on his record including several batteries and criminal damage.

The prosecutor said there had been "previous incidents involving females in the past" which showed a "concerning pattern mirroring the present case".

She said that Allinson, a factory worker, had intended to "humiliate and degrade" the victim, causing "severe" psychological harm.

She had since been diagnosed with, and medicated for, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.

Defending barrister Rhianydd Clement said the three-year relationship "went downhill" due to Allinson's "excessive drinking" and "anger-management" issues stemming from a difficult childhood.

In sentencing him, Judge Kidd said: "[The victim] underwent sustained, terrifying, potentially-life-threatening assaults over a very significant period of time - just short of two years.

"This has had a profound effect on her mental health and wellbeing."

She told Allinson: "It represents a persistent, terrifying episode of violence and torture of this woman who was so very vulnerable to your attacks."

In addition to his jail sentence, he was made subject to a seven-year restraining order banning him from contacting the victim and going to her address.

He was told he would serve half of the jail term before being released on licence.

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