Possessive thug told Wakefield woman he knew for just 10 weeks: 'You are mine'
He refused to leave her home after Facebook meeting
A thug with a history of domestic violence told a woman she belonged to him after strangling her.
Danny Farmer had only been seeing the woman for 10 weeks but refused to leave her home which left her feeling trapped.
The 37-year-old forklift driver was jailed at Leeds Crown Court this week.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, the woman said: “I felt like my life and home no longer belonged to me.
“I was constantly walking on eggshells and hid away from family and friends due to the injuries he caused.”
The woman said she had since had security cameras fitted at her home.
Prosecutor Rachel Webster said the pair had met through Facebook and began a relationship earlier this year.
Unhappy about her former partner, they got into an argument in March and Farmer dragged her upstairs and pinned her to the bed before putting his hand around her throat and punching her multiple times to the face.
Farmer broke two of his fingers in the attack and later needed hospital treatment.
Ms Webster said the woman was afraid of him and would regularly ask him to leave her property, but he refused.
He chillingly warned her: “You are mine, nobody else can have you.”
He would also follow her around, even if she went upstairs.
Farmer, of no fixed address, later admitted strangulation and two counts of criminal damage from a different occasion when he broke a door and the woman’s phone.
He appeared in court over a video link from HMP Leeds, where he was being held on remand.
The court heard he had previous convictions for GBH for which he was jailed in 2015, and again in 2020 for ABH on another former partner.
Mitigating for his latest offences, Shila Whitehead said that although it was a short relationship, it had been volatile.
She said father-of-three Farmer had been diagnosed with dyslexia and needed screening for bipolar because of a history of the condition in his family.
She added that he was “remorseful” but “realistic” about the outcome.
Judge Kate Rayfield told him: “The ferocity of your attack is revealed in that you broke two of your fingers doing it.
“The impact on her has been profound.
“You accept you have anger-management issues, that may be an understatement.”
She jailed him for 27 months and gave him a five-year restraining order to keep him away from the woman.