A violent Harrogate man who strangled and coerced his partner has been jailed for more than two years.

Louis Bradbourne, 30, once a successful businessman with a chain of hair salons and vape shops, began a relationship with the woman after his “little business empire” began to crumble due to his alcohol and drug problem, York Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Joe Culley said that what started out as a good, “on-off” relationship became toxic over time due to Bradbourne’s drink-and-drug-fuelled aggression, violence and obsessive monitoring of the victim’s whereabouts and friendships.

Over a prolonged period, Bradbourne isolated her from friends, monitored her movements, bombarded her with phone calls and texts, verbally abused her and damaged her property including her phone.

On December 10 last year, the victim recorded Bradbourne saying he was going to kill her, only for him to snatch the phone from her and delete the recordings.

He looked through her phone and found text messages she had sent to friends which were “critical” of him, upon which he grabbed her arm and kicked her leg, causing bruising.

The following day at her home in the Harrogate area, in another fit of temper, he strangled her “to the point of unconsciousness”, and repeatedly threatened to kill her.

Bradbourne would also call and text the victim repeatedly “to check what she was doing and where she was”.

“He repeatedly said things to her to belittle her…and isolated her from family and friends,” Mr Culley said.

Bradbourne also subjected the woman to financial exploitation, namely by putting his phone in her name and getting her to pay for its use.

On December 18 last year, the former businessman was arrested and bailed on the proviso that he didn’t contact the victim or go to her house. He was also made subject to a one-month domestic-violence-protection order.

Despite this, he turned up at her home on April 6 this year, when he repeatedly punched her to the head and threatened to kill her.

The victim showed police screenshots from her phone which showed that on that day she had received four missed calls and text messages from two different numbers which the prosecution asserted were sent by Bradbourne.

Bradbourne, a burly figure, was arrested again and brought in for questioning but denied all allegations.

He was charged with a string of offences against the victim including using controlling and coercive behaviour, strangulation and two counts of battery.

He maintained his innocence right up to the second listing of his scheduled trial when he pleaded guilty to controlling behaviour and strangulation. The other matters were allowed to lie on court file because they were part and parcel of the coercive behaviour.

'I've been completely broken'

Bradbourne, of Hookstone Wood Road in Harrogate, appeared for sentence via video link today (December 17) after being remanded in custody.

His now-ex partner was in court to read out a victim statement, in which she spoke of Bradbourne’s unrelentingly “cruel” behaviour towards her.

“I feel like I’ve lost everything about myself,” she said. 

The woman added:

Bradbourne’s behaviour had made her “just so unhappy and very lonely”.

Prosecuting barrister Mr Culley said that Bradbourne had a track record for violence. His rap sheet comprised five previous convictions for nine offences including battery, public disorder, resisting a police constable and a previous breach of the same domestic-violence-protection order.

'He's lost everything as a result of that self-destructive behaviour'

Defence barrister David Ward said that Bradbourne, a father-of-one, accepted that it was his “poor” behaviour, exacerbated by his alcohol and drug use, that had caused the relationship to break down.

He said that Bradbourne was “originally a successful young man” who had a “little business empire” of hairdressing salons and vape shops, but they “collapsed due to addiction to alcohol and drugs”.

“He’s lost everything as a result of that self-destructive behaviour which the (named) poor young lady appears to have met the tail end of,” added Mr Ward.

He said that Bradbourne had lately been living with his father in Oxford before being remanded in jail, which had had a “resounding effect” on him.

Judge Simon Hickey said that Bradbourne, whom he described as “quite a powerful, well-built man”, had caused the victim “immense distress and pain”.

He contrasted Bradbourne’s physical stature to that of the victim whom he described as “quite slight”.

The judge said that violence on this level, and the victim’s “anguish”, meant that an immediate prison sentence was the only option.

Bradbourne was jailed for two years and three months and made subject to a restraining order for the protection of the victim.

Mr Hickey said that because of Bradbourne’s record, as well as “the violence meted out to this woman” and the “drastic” effects on her, this order would last for 15 years.

The order prohibits Bradbourne from contacting the victim, going within 100 metres of any address or workplace where he knows her to be living or staying, and posting anything about her on social media.