Woman feared partner would kill her in attacks

Michael Johnson had been jailed before for attacking the same woman

A man who had twice been imprisoned for attacking his partner has been jailed for another three years for further violence against her.

Michael Johnson, 35, repeatedly attacked his on-off partner of 10 years, leaving her injured and terrified, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The woman said she feared she would be killed when he regularly squeezed her neck and told the court he dictated every aspect of her life.

Johnson, of Hurworth Moor, Darlington, admitted coercive and controlling behaviour.

Johnson was jailed for two years in 2018 for witness intimidation, having demanded the woman "drop the charges" after she complained to police about him attacking and stalking her, the court heard.

In 2022, he was jailed for a further two years and one month for an assault, in which he repeatedly punched and kicked her, dragged her by the hair and bit her finger, leaving her with injuries including two black eyes, Judge Francis Laird KC said.

In the intervening years he also breached a restraining order banning him from contacting her, the court heard.

'Get in my head'

Against that background, the couple resumed their relationship in October 2024 with Johnson soon moving into the woman's Darlington home, the court heard.

But very quickly he "fell back into [his] old ways", the judge said, with arguments regularly resulting in violence.

The woman told police it was "horrible to be so scared of somebody who was meant to protect her", adding: "I thought I was going to die every time he put his hand around my neck."

She said she was more scared of Johnson than "anything in the world", the court heard.

On 22 February, CCTV captured him climbing on to her roof and looking in her bedroom window while holding a brick, the court heard, but the woman was staying with a friend.

In a statement she read to the court herself, the woman said Johnson had dictated every aspect of her life adding: "[He would] get into my head and control how I think of myself."

'Abhorrent behaviour'

The court heard both had drug and alcohol issues and in her "low ebbs" she would gravitate back to Johnson as the "toxic relationship" was all she thought she could have.

She said the episodes discussed in court were "just the tip of the iceberg", adding: "He has done a lot worse to me over the years."

The woman said she now realised she was "worth a lot more" and deserved a "better life", although she had post-traumatic stress disorder because of Johnson, for example being unable to wear any jewellery around her neck because it triggered flashbacks of his strangling her.

Johnson, who appeared at court via video link from HMP Holme House, could be seen crying as the woman read her statement.

In mitigation, Cainan Lonsdale said Johnson accepted his behaviour had been "abhorrent".

Johnson was also made subject of a restraining order banning him from contacting the woman indefinitely.