Jealous groom attacked Leeds bride after refusing to let her have photos with other men at their wedding
A “jealous and obsessive” groom refused to let his new wife have photos taken with other men at their wedding before viciously attacking her on their honeymoon.
Sonny Parker then set out on a campaign of harassment, bombarding the woman with emails and calls when she ended the relationship, which his own barrister even described as being a “recipe for disaster”.
Parker was jailed at Leeds Crown Court this week after admitting ABH and harassment without violence, and ordered to stay away from his wife’s Belle Isle home.
The court learned that the couple had known got together in 2023 and moved in in February 2024.
They married in August 2024, but the relationship was already strained because Parker was expecting a child with another woman, which his bride-to-be was aware of.
Prosecutor Oishee Dey said immediately after the service, Parker was infuriated when their wedding photographer suggested photos of his bride with the best man.
Parker began an argument with his new wife and he left the wedding early.
However, they patched things up and flew to Rhodes on their honeymoon. But the calm did not last when his new wife began talking about her friend and her husband, with Parker accusing her of cheating with him.
He stormed off the balcony into their room and she followed. He then pinned her down on the bed and began punching her legs.
The 39-year-old then punched her to the face and put his hands around her throat.
He told her if she carried on screaming he would throw her from the balcony, Ms Dey told the court.
Parker continued punching her to the face and slammed her into a wall despite her tears.
Ms Dey said there was blood “everywhere”. Parker stopped and told the woman: “Look at what you’ve done now.”
She had a large cut to her head and said she wanted to go home. She asked the hotel workers for a separate room but they insisted she go to hospital where the laceration to her head was stitched.
The woman later rang a friend in the UK and they contacted the police. His new wife told Parker she no longer wanted to be with him.
He returned to the UK on September 7 where he was met by police at Manchester Airport. He was later released on bail and ordered not to contact the woman, but almost immediately he offered to meet her at the airport when she landed.
But it was not until March that he began calling her and emailing her almost daily, calling her a “grass” for contacting the police about his assault and making threats towards her.
He was arrested again and gave a prepared statement, denying making contact and any wrongdoing.
Parker, of Hornby Close, Middlesbrough, has six previous convictions for seven offences, including a robbery in 2003.
Mitigating, Stuart Field said of his latest offending: “This relationship was perhaps, with the benefit of hindsight, a recipe for disaster from the outset.”
He said that Parker now accepted his culpability for the hotel-room attack.
Judge Mushtaq Khokhar said that Parker had “difficulties” in the past with relationships due to his behaviour.
He said the attack on his new wife stemmed from “jealousy, obsessiveness and mistrust”.
He added: “It was not just one punch or a slap, it was repetitive violence against her. People need to know they can’t use violence against their partners like you did.”
He jailed him for 27 months and gave him an indefinite-length restraining order.