Jail term of bullying boyfriend is cut by judges

A ‘DEMANDING and controlling’ bully who accused his then girlfriend of seeing other men and drove her to take an overdose has had his jail term cut by top judges.

Joshua Robert Bolland, 25, from Salford, was locked up for four years and two months at Manchester Crown Court on October 24 last year, but it has now been reduced to three years and five months.

He admitted harassment, putting his former girlfriend in fear of violence, witness intimidation, criminal damage and fraud.

Bolland, then 24, was ‘heavily addicted to cocaine’ and in a relationship with his victim, then 17, Lord Justice Simon told London’s Appeal Court.

He moved in with her in her father’s property, but the ‘relationship hit difficulties’, it was heard.

He was not physically violent but was ‘demanding and controlling’ and she was ‘scared of him’.

In May last year, the couple had an argument and he accused her of seeing other men.

He became aggressive and she told him the relationship was over.

During his ‘vicious’ campaign of harassment against her, he smashed windows of her father’s property. He told her the only way she could leave him was if she killed herself - and she responded by taking an overdose of painkillers.

Lawyers for Bolland argued his overall jail term was far too tough and should be reduced.

Lord Justice Simon, who was sitting with two other judges, said the harassment was ‘protracted and vicious’.

But he ruled that part of the jail term was ‘unlawful’ and some of the sentences imposed should have been made concurrent, rather than consecutive.