Hebburn man jailed for stalking and controlling behaviour

Paul Brown admitted using controlling behaviour and stalking

A man who tormented his partner during their relationship and repeatedly threatened her after it ended has been jailed for two and a half years.

Paul Brown stopped the woman seeing her friends, accused her of cheating on him when she was visiting her dying mother and deluged her with abusive messages.

His victim said she no longer recognised herself and still lived in fear, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

Brown, 51, from Hebburn, admitted controlling behaviour and stalking.

'Toxic' relationship

Brown, a father of two, got together with the woman in June 2022 and proposed to her within a week, prosecutor Ian Cook said.

His victim said the relationship was "toxic" and Brown was "argumentative and controlling", adding he would "constantly check her phone", Mr Cook said.

When she made weekly visits to see her terminally ill mother, Brown would "repeatedly" accuse her of sleeping with an ex-partner, the prosecutor said.

On one occasion he messaged her adult son to ask where she was.

Her son said she was asleep on the sofa but Brown, of Frobisher Street, demanded he send a picture of the sleeping woman as he did not believe him, the court heard.

The on-off relationship finally ended in February 2023, after which Brown started a stalking campaign.

'Just a possession'

Over a two-week period he sent her 30 emails and left 32 voicemails, as well as multiple text messages.

In the messages he repeatedly called her abusive names, threatened he would contact social services to have her son removed, told her she was being constantly watched by him and others and threatened to hurt her and her family.

He was seen outside her home twice, on one occasion making a gun gesture at her, and when she asked him to leave her alone he said there was "no chance" and no matter what she did he would be watching.

In a statement, the woman told the court Brown knew she had previously been the victim of domestic abuse and violence but had vowed to never ill-treat her.

"I put full trust in him which I now know was a life-changing mistake," she said, adding: "He has turned me into somebody I no longer recognise.

"I was just a possession of his who he liked to control."

She said she had been blinded by love, adding she "didn't see the red flags which, looking back, were blatantly obvious".

The woman said she could not eat or sleep, had lost a lot of friends, suffered extreme anxiety, had felt suicidal and still feared leaving her house.

Recorder Nathan Moxon said Brown made the woman's life a "misery", adding he isolated her from her friends, monitored her location, repeatedly accused her of infidelity and spoke to her in a "demeaning manner".

"You caused very serious distress," the judge said, adding he agreed with a pre-sentence report that concluded Brown posed a "high risk of serious harm" to a partner.

An indefinite restraining order was also made.