Two-timing, violent bed-wetter who met victims online jailed
WOMEN WERE BELITTLED AND ABUSED BY CONTROLLING THUG
A VIOLENT bed-wetting drunk who abused two women he met through online dating sites forced one of them to beg him on her hands and knees not to leave.
Paul Saunders, pictured, called the young victim “the biggest woman I’ve been with” to her face before making her plead with him, Derby Crown Court heard.
After she did that, he made her drive him to the shops to buy alcohol and then attacked her during a violent rage in her car.
The court heard how the controlling, violent drunk was seeing two women at the same time and he punched the other of his victims unconscious in one attack.
The father-of-four then demanded she take the week off work so her colleagues did not see her black eye.
In a victim impact statement, one of the women said: “I have no selfesteem any more.
“I hate myself for allowing someone to get into my head so much (and) allowing him to treat me in the way he did.”
Saunders, of Gorsey Leys, Overseal, near Ashby, was jailed for a total of 28 months.
Recorder Paul Mann QC told him: “You humiliated and degraded them using serious violence on many occasions.
“You undermined the confidence of the first victim, telling her she was fat and that she was lucky to be with you. You used violence against her on at least four occasions.
“You strangled her, pulling her around the floor by the ponytail and punched her with sufficient force to knock her out.
“You preyed on the second victim’s insecurities by telling her you would see other women.
“Things with her came to a head when you assaulted her in her car.”
Steven Taylor, prosecuting, said Saunders began seeing the first victim in December last year through to March this year.
He said that overlapped with seeing the second victim at the same time between January and May of this year.
Mr Taylor said the women did not know they were being two-timed by the defendant, who still carried on messaging other women over internet dating sites.
He said within a short space of time Saunders began controlling what they could and could not do.
Mr Taylor said on at least four occasions he used violence against the first victim who he would ask to come to his flat and then demand she drink alcohol so she would not be able to drive home.
Outlining some of the incidents, he said: “He would show her photos of other women on the dating sites, saying they looked better than she did.
“She quickly realised he had a problem with alcohol, saying once he started he could not stop and sometimes even wet the bed.
“On one occasion he headbutted her and ripped her vest, bra and shorts off.
“He once punched her to the extent that he knocked her out.
“The next day he told her he wanted her to take the week off work because of her physical appearance.
“In her victim personal statement she says she had been manipulated to the extent she felt worthless.”
Mr Taylor said the second victim was much younger than Saunders and moved in with him.
He said very quickly afterwards, the defendant started goading and controlling her as well.
Mr Taylor said: “She said the relationship was OK at first, but he then became increasingly domineering and controlling.
“He made derogatory comments about her, saying she was the biggest girl he had ever been with.
“He made her beg on her hands and knees to stay with him.
“On one occasion in May he made her drive him to the shop to buy alcohol. He told her he was going to get another woman round to his address and then lashed out at her.”
Saunders, who a previous conviction from 2019 for drink-driving, pleaded guilty to two counts of controlling and coercive behaviour.
Hal Ewing, mitigating, said his client has four children from previous relationships and there had never been any reports of violence before with those women.
He said: “The reasons why his drinking spiralled out of control was his mother’s death.
“These were two sets of disgraceful behaviour for which there can be no excuse.
“These were desperate actions from someone losing control.”
As well as the prison sentence, Recorder Mann handed Saunders a three-year restraining order to protect the two women.