A Northallerton man who subjected his partner to “emotional torture” and severe beatings over a two-year period has been jailed for over three years.
Jack Allinson, 30, bit, strangled and punched his partner and once poured petrol around her house as he flicked a lighter, threatening to torch her home, Teesside Crown Court heard.
Judge Joanne Kidd said that Allinson’s attacks and controlling behaviour amounted to the mental torture of the named victim who was subjected to “sustained, terrifying, potentially-life-threatening assaults over a very significant period of time”.
She said the psychological effect on the victim was “indescribable”.
Prosecutor Michele Stuart-Lofthouse said that Allinson had subjected the victim to a horrific campaign of abuse between May 2023 and January 2025.
The then couple were living together in Northallerton at the time, having started a relationship in the summer of 2022.
She said the relationship was initially without incident, but then it deteriorated due to Allinson’s habitual heavy drinking and controlling behaviour.
“He started to control who she was able to be friends with and what she was able to wear,” added Ms Stuart-Lofthouse.
“He would often turn aggressive. He would often smoke cannabis (which) she would not allow in the address.”
In one drink-fuelled incident at her home in May 2023, Allinson grabbed her around the throat and pushed her against a wall, causing a cut to her face which left a scar.
Two months later, he strangled her and bit her on the ear, leaving her with a bust lip, reddening to her neck and bruising to her ear.
In another incident that summer, he smashed up her kitchen table, a dining chair, glass bottles and a clock, resulting in the kitchen being strewn with shards of glass.
He then grabbed a canister and poured petrol all over her kitchen floor, living room and on the first two steps of the staircase. Then, while standing in the doorway, he began flicking a lighter, threatening to torch her house.
“She was petrified because she thought he would set fire to the address,” said Ms Stuart-Lofthouse.
In another incident in November that year, the victim was walking home from a family event in Brompton when Allinson, again in drink, pushed her to the ground, got on top of her and squeezed her neck with his arms to the point where she couldn’t breathe.
The victim passed out and woke up lying on the concrete. She suffered a bruised and swollen neck.
In yet another incident in January 2024, they were walking home from a friend’s house in Northallerton when Allinson again forced her to the ground by pulling her hair. Then, as she was lying helpless on her back, he got on top of her and repeatedly punched her to the face as she screamed out, causing bruising to her forehead.
In another violent incident in February that year, Allinson headbutted her, causing her nose to “bleed heavily”.
In a subsequent incident at her home, Allinson grabbed her around the neck on the landing and smashed her head against a mirror.
In another incident, he grabbed her around the throat and pushed her up against the kitchen wall as she cried and made “choking noises”.
“He was banging her head against the wall,” said Ms Stuart-Lofthouse.
“He was saying, ‘I’ll smash your head in’”.
The victim finally reported him to police in late 2025. Allinson was arrested in December and made partial admissions but largely tried to blame the victim for his abhorrent behaviour.
He said he drank “a lot of vodka” and that he poured petrol all over the house in a “drink-fuelled rage”, albeit claiming he never intended to set the property alight.
Allinson, of Oak Grove, was initially charged with multiple offences including actual bodily harm after the victim alleged she had been strangled on at least three occasions and repeatedly assaulted and injured.
He ultimately admitted one count of using controlling and coercive behaviour over a near-two-year period and one sample charge of intentional strangulation in which the victim lost consciousness.
The prosecution dropped the other allegations because they formed part of the controlling behaviour.
Allinson appeared for sentence yesterday after being remanded in custody.
In a statement read out by the prosecution, the victim, a mother-of-three, said she had been “constantly living in fear”.
She added: “I feared for my life. I was headbutted, punched, bitten. These assaults caused me pain, injury and significant emotional trauma.”
She now suffered from nightmares from which she would wake “with tears running down my face”.
“Jack made serious threats to me and told me he would kill me,” she added.
“These threats caused me extreme fear and distress.”
Allinson had 15 previous offences on his record including several batteries and criminal damage.
Ms Lofthouse said there had been “previous incidents involving females in the past” which showed a “concerning pattern mirroring the present case”.
She said that Allinson, a factory worker, had intended to “humiliate and degrade” the victim, causing “severe” psychological harm. She had since been diagnosed with, and medicated for, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.
Defence barrister Rhianydd Clement said the three-year relationship “went downhill” due to Allinson’s “excessive drinking” and “anger-management” issues stemming from a difficult childhood.
Judge Ms Kidd said: “(The victim) underwent sustained, terrifying, potentially-life-threatening assaults over a very significant period of time – just short of two years. This has had a profound effect on her mental health and wellbeing.”
She told Allinson: “(The victim) was terrorised that you had no emotional control whatsoever when you (assaulted) her.
“Taken together, it represents a persistent, terrifying episode of violence and torture of this woman who was so very vulnerable to your attacks.”
Allinson was jailed for three years and two months and made subject to a seven-year restraining order banning him from contacting the victim and going to her address.
However, he was told he would only serve half of the 38-month jail sentence behind bars – minus the time he had spent on remand – before being released on prison licence.
Be the first to comment