Violent girlfriend is first woman guilty of new abuse crime
22-year-old who stabbed, beat, bullied, scalded and controlled her boyfriend is jailed for seven years
A UNIVERSITY graduate is believed to be the first woman convicted under new domestic abuse laws after scalding her boyfriend with boiling water, stabbing him and keeping food from him.
Jordan Worth, 22, banned her partner from their bed, decided what clothes he could wear, isolated him from friends and family and took over his Facebook account.
She was jailed for seven and a half years after pleading guilty to the offence of controlling or coercive behaviour in an intimate relationship, as well as wounding with intent and causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
Worth made her boyfriend’s life a misery, exercising control over him shortly after they moved in together, Luton Crown Court heard.
Raised in Ridgmont, Herts, she was a high performer at school, was a trained gymnast and gained a degree in fine art from University of Hertfordshire. She volunteered for an animal charity but wanted to become a teacher.
But Judge Nic Madge heard that Worth controlled every aspect of her partner’s life at their home in the village of Stewartby in Bedfordshire.
Worth and her partner had met at college in 2012 when they were both 16, Maryam Syed, prosecuting, told the court. She became violent towards the man, who suffered from hydrocephalus – which the court heard made him vulnerable – using blunt objects to strike him, wounding him with a knife and failing to help him get hospital treatment. For nine months he was banned from sleeping in the same bed as her.
Neighbours said they often heard the couple arguing and the sounds of things being thrown, Miss Syed said.
The victim was heard by his neighbours shouting at Worth: “Get off me, you are hurting me.” He was seen on occasions with black eyes and to be limping and with his arm in a sling.
Worth was once seen at window by a neighbour, “armed” with a screwdriver or hammer, the court heard.
When paramedics were called, they found injuries to her partner’s hand and burns to arms and legs which were being self-treated with cling film. He was taken to Bedford Hospital and then to Addenbrooke’s hospital. Miss Syed said: “Five per cent of his total body surface was scalded.”
Days later, Worth was arrested. Judge Madge told Worth that as well as the violence, she had refused him adequate bedding and food. He said she would “belittle” her partner and discouraged him from contacting friends and his family.
“She accepts using boiling or hot water to cause injury to him. She accepts that she has in the past used a knife to cause injury to her partner,” he said.
Worth was handed a restraining order, preventing her from contacting the victim for an indefinite period.
‘She accepts using boiling or hot water to cause injury to him ... [and] in the past used a knife to cause injury to him’