Spared jail, ‘fat-shame’ boyfriend who slapped and bullied teenager
COURT TOLD HIS MENTAL HEALTH WAS AFFECTED DURING PREVIOUS SPELL BEHIND BARS
A POSSESSIVE boyfriend who ‘fat shamed’ a teenage girl, beat her up and bullied her into sex has walked free – after claiming he developed mental health problems while in jail for terrorising another girlfriend.
Callum Whittingham, then 20, slapped the youngster claiming ‘he couldn’t help it,’ tried to distance the teenager from her friends and told her that her family did not love her any more.
During their on-off relationship Whittingham, from Stretford, would leave voicemails on the girl’s phone threatening her family, refused to let her leave his house on her own and, on one occasion, put a hot spoon on her chest.
The youngster, who has since split up with Whittingham and has a new boyfriend, later told police: “The way Callum has made me feel has really affected me. I have not left my own home for fear of me bumping into him.
“I have nightmares and wake up panicking. I now flinch when my new boyfriend moves and it has made me feel depressed. I am scared of Callum.’’
At Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court, Whittingham, now 21, faced jail after he admitted two charges of coercive behaviour.
But he was sentenced to 18 months jail suspended for two years after saying a nine-week stretch imposed upon him in August over another domestic incident upon another partner had a ‘negative effect on his depression.’
The court heard Whittingham and the girl had begun dating this year.
Whittingham, of Elizabeth Close, Stretford, was locked up in August for making malicious communications against a former partner and criminal damage in a domestic relationship.
In mitigation, Adam Brown said: “He has a significant number of difficulties and found the custodial setting hard. Sending him back to custody would not achieve anything in my respectful submission. He cannot manage his emotions.”
He added: “He accepts the victim was only a young girl and he had made her life a misery. But custody has had a negative impact on his depression. There is a strong prospect of rehabilitation.”
Sentencing, Judge Maurice Greene told Whittingham: “You made the victim’s life miserable and fearful as she did not know what was going on at the time. You would slap her, call her names and stop her from seeing her friends.”
The judge added: “But it is quite clear you have had considerable trauma in your life and you have mental health issues. Your adopted father died when you were 17 and your birth mother died when you were 16. You have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and you are on medication for depression and anxiety.
“Custody has had a considerable effect on you. In August 2021, you were sentenced to nine weeks in adult custody and that has had an effect on your mental health. There have been previous instances of self harm. Because of these matters, I can suspend this prison sentence but only just.”
Whittingham was also ordered to complete 45 rehabilitation requirement days, complete a ‘Building Better Relationships’ programme plus 80 hours of unpaid work.
He was banned from contacting the girl for five years.