Jail for boyfriend who controlled his lover’s social media
He banned her from adding kisses to her posts
AN OBSESSIVE boyfriend who stopped his lover putting kisses at the end of online posts to male friends has been jailed for bullying and controlling her use of social media.
Matthew Bailey, 24, began the abuse just days after his first date with care assistant Molly Cunliffe.
He banned the 19-year- old from using the social media app Snapchat and ordered her not to swap Facebook and Instagram messages with men unless they were gay.
Bailey would also regularly check Miss Cunliffe’s mobile phone, tell her what to wear and insist that she use the video-calling service FaceTime to prove she was at home in bed.
He also bombarded her with phone calls all day, and then accused her of cheating on him if she didn’t answer.
Miss Cunliffe said she felt trapped by his jealousy and belittling behaviour. In one phone call recorded by a friend of hers following an argument, Bailey warned Miss Cunliffe: ‘ You’ll get a car through your front window and I’ll stab you in the neck. You know what I’m capable of.
‘Do not block my number then go home and shag... I’ll drive a car through your gaff.’
When Miss Cunliffe, from Bolton, tried to end the relationship, Bailey threatened to kill her family. She went to police after he rang her 30 times in just one morning.
Unemployed Bailey, from Horwich, near Bolton, was jailed for six months at Manchester Magistrates’ Court after he was found guilty of engaging in controlling or coercive behaviour in an intimate relationship.
He was also given a restraining order to stop him contacting Miss Cunliffe for five years.
The court heard the couple met in April over the photosharing website Instagram, where Miss Cunliffe has 5,000 followers. She said they saw each other for four days in a row, by which time he had begun to call her names, adding: ‘I felt quite devastated and upset.’
She told how his controlling behaviour included having to meet at certain times and requiring her to be up and dressed at a particular hour.
‘He would ring me several times in the morning and accuse me of sleeping with someone else if I didn’t answer. He would call me names such as “slag” or “slut” and he would continuously ring me, every minute – I felt like I was trapped,’ she said.
When Miss Cunliffe did not take his calls, Bailey would also start texting her mother.
Bailey, who had already spent time in jail for another conviction, and has a criminal record including theft, assault and a sex offence, would also demand to know who Miss Cunliffe was texting if she used her phone.
‘He would look at my phone every day, and all the time I would spend with him he would constantly check my phone,’ she added. Miss Cunliffe said his behaviour meant she did not see any friends and family during the four-week relationship, apart from her parents.
She added: ‘I wasn’t allowed to have Snapchat because I was speaking to a boy, so I deleted it. I was not allowed to follow any more boys on Instagram.
‘I tried to end the relationship three times, but he kept saying he would change.’
Miss Cunliffe blocked Bailey from calling her, but relented after he made threats.
During one incident, he threatened her with a pool cue in a pub after a row about his flirting with a girl.
Miss Cunliffe’s father, John, said: ‘I wasn’t happy about the relationship. He was possessive. Molly went into her shell. It was wrong and controlling.’
Bailey, who denied wrongdoing, said: ‘She got quite jealous about my girlfriends and I would look at her phone to gain stability in the relationship.’
But District Judge James Hatton said Miss Cunliffe was a credible witness, telling Bailey: ‘You were involved in domestic abuse almost through the whole relationship. You belittled her.’
As well as being jailed on Friday, Bailey was ordered to pay compensation, costs and surcharges totalling £735.
‘I felt like I was trapped’