Violent Wakefield partner put woman through years of abuse and controlling behaviour

Dean Smith attacks on the woman were an “almost daily recurrence”, and when he was finally arrested for it, then resorted to controlling “all aspects of her life”.

This included her finances, her social media accounts and "what she could and couldn’t do”, Leeds Crown Court was told this week.

Smith, aged 54, was found guilty of a charge of coercive and controlling behaviour following a trial last month. During his sentencing hearing, the court was told that he has a lengthy criminal record with 25 previous offences to his name. The last was 2016, but none are related to domestic violence.

The controlling behaviour took place between 2018 and 2022 which Judge Anesh Pema said was “made up of two parts”. Between December 2018 and November 2019, he said there were “numerable times of violence”, but of note, he said the victim went to her GP with a facial injury in April 2019 which turned out to be a fracture.

She was also spotted with bruising to her face on another occasion. Smith, of Copeworth Drive, Hall Green, Wakefield, also punched and smashed a new TV at home.

The judge said then came the second part, in which Smith stopped assaulting the woman and began controlling her life. Judge Pema said: “There were multiple methods of coercive and controlling behaviour.”

He criticised Smith for continuing a refusal to accept responsibility for the physical assaults, and a probation report found there was a “high level of victim blaming”.

Mitigating, Rachel Webster said Smith had spent a spell on remand. She said: “He is full of remorse for the way he treated her. He does not like the way he conducted himself and recognises the need for change.

"Part of his reluctance to accept responsibility is high levels of shame and guilt. He is an individual who lived a very troubled life.”

She said he has abstained from alcohol and added: “He wants to better himself when he comes out and does not want to go back in again.”

He was jailed for three years and given a five-year restraining order.