Justice at last for Jade after years of beatings
AMUM-OF-THREE has told how her thug boyfriend subjected her to years of domestic violence, including beating her with a metal broom and cutting her with shards from a mirror.
Jade Brett-Moore spoke to the Visiter about her experiences as Daniel McLean was beginning a four-year jail sentence for his crimes.
Jade, 23, finally plucked up the courage to escape from the cycle of physical and mental abuse after McLean from Southport viciously beat her with a metal broom pole, which he sharpened so the edges would cut her legs.
The thug also threatened to have her gang-raped and once used shards from a mirror he had smashed to cut her, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
He even told her: “I’m going to rape you and throw you in the lake.” He once warned: “It’s going to be me or you dead tonight,” and gave her the sinister threat: “You’re a nonce. I’m going to throw acid in your slaggy little face.”
Jade was subjected to daily beatings which left her whole body black and blue and was shut off from the outside world, banned from speaking to friends and family.
Her mobile phones were even smashed by her controlling and “manipulative” partner.
Last week in court, Mrs Recorder Mary Loram QC decided that McLean was a danger to the public, describing him as “obsessive” and said that the abuse suffered by Jade was “harrowing”.
The stony-faced defendant, who appeared via a video-link from HMP Liverpool prison and admitted two charges of assault and the breach of a restraining order, showed no emotion when he was sent down.
The judge added: “What she has gone through is distressing to listen to.
“Your persistent conduct and manipulation of Jade is stark. You tried to convince her she was going mad – you manipulated her.
“But you will not manipulate this court as you have her. You are not the ‘keenest kid’, you are a coward and a bully.”
After the verdict, Jade said: “I’m over the moon with the sen- tence, it’s deserved. Justice has been done.
“I can now try and get on with my life, try and get a place at university.
“It’s nice to be able to speak with my friends and family who I previously wasn’t allowed to contact as he’d smash my phones.
“I was shut off from the world, and now I need to build up that trust again.
“I’d like to tell anyone in an abusive relationship, you are believed.
“If you’re manipulated and get promises that things will change – it won’t.
“It only gets worse.
“You’ve got to break free from it before it’s too late. I then said it would end with either me taking my own life or him taking mine.”
A new 10-year restraining order has been imposed, stopping McLean from contacting his ex-girlfriend.
And Jade added: “Even my dog, an American bulldog, was extremely distressed with what Daniel did as he’d be locked out and end up crying at the door.
“But now Daniel’s gone, he’s happy, eating well, and is back to being my best friend.
“I’m going to take him now for a walk along the beach, and look forward to a better future.”