Arrogant Wakefield woman tried to make partner beg and told her: 'You will obey me'
An arrogant woman ordered her partner to obey her, attacked and spat at her before making her clean their house, a court heard.
Catherine Lower narrowly avoided jail at Leeds Crown Court this week after admitting two charges of ABH and one of strangulation.
The couple had been in a relationship for around three years, but it was marred by Lower’s heavy drinking and mental health issues, punctuated with bouts of violence.
This included an incident in December 2021 in which Lower stabbed the woman in the arm with a kitchen knife. It was not pursued after the victim refused to support a prosecution.
But in mid August 2023, they got into an argument and Lower hit the victim around the face and pushed into her a cupboard, telling she needed to “obey” her.
She punched her, bit her finger and stabbed her in the arm with a key. The woman needed two days off work to recover.
But just two days later on October 21, she attacked her partner again, punching her and knocking her glasses from her face.
The victim began crying but Lower ordered her to stop, punching her again. She spat in face around five times, grabbed her by the throat and told her that if she called the police she would kill her.
The 35-year-old arrogantly told her: “You can’t get anyone better than me. You should obey me.”
She ordered her to beg, and when the woman refused, Lower got her in a headlock. She hit her again and choked her “for around a minute”, prosecutor Ayesha Smart said.
When the woman began screaming, Lower put her hand over her mouth. She told her it was all her fault and continued to be verbally abusive.
Lower then went to bed, but ordered the victim to clean the house they shared on St James’ Court in Havercroft, Wakefield.
The victim messaged her mother who contacted the police.
In a victim impact statement, read out by Ms Smart, the woman said she can”barely look in the mirror” because of the scars left by Lower’s attacks.
She said she was “always looking over her shoulder” and was “genuinely scared” of Lower.
Lower, who entered the dock in court with the aid of a walking stick, has one previous conviction for assaulting an emergency worker.
Mitigating, Paul Addison conceded the attacks “must have been painful and humiliating” but said Lower was aware she could be jailed and had brought a suitcase of clothes with her in preparation.
He added: “She apologises for her behaviour. It’s a genuine, remorseful apology. She has said on a number of occasions that nobody else is responsible but her.”
He said Lower, of Highfield Road, Hemsworth, recognised that she needed to change but said there were “complex mental health issues”, including unstable personality disorder. She also suffers from fibromyalgia, a chronic condition causing musculoskeletal pain.
The judge, Recorder Jeremy Hill-Baker gave her a two-year jail sentence, suspended for two years. He told her she must complete 50 rehabilitation days with probation, and gave her a five-year restraining order to keep her away from the victim.
He reserved breaches to himself and warned her that should she not adhere to the terms, it would be “inevitable” that she goes into custody.