Stalker’s threat to bomb partner’s house after terrifying abuse:
A stalker who threatened to bomb the houses of his partner, her sister and parents after she ended their “horrific” relationship has been jailed.
Ian Michael Hawley, 31, also took his expartner wearing only her onesie to Rhosneigr Station to try to leave North Wales for England until police caught up with them.
And in a further incident, he lied to police that she was being “gang raped” – with police driving at high speed down country lanes to prevent the fictitious crime – in the hope officers would later reveal her whereabouts to him.
Hawley, who pleaded guilty to stalking, and coercive and controlling behaviour, appeared via video link from HMP Berwyn at Caernarfon Crown Court and was jailed for two years and 11 months for the stalking and 20 months to run concurrently for coercive and controlling behaviour.
A judge also imposed a restraining order banning him from visiting the entire island of Anglesey where his “psychologically damaged” victim lives.
The court heard Hawley, of no fixed address, had met “quiet and shy” Alexandra Costello on social media in about 2014.
She moved into his family home in Oldham.
But prosecutor Myles Wilson said that Hawley abused drugs and controlled their joint bank card.
He forced her to sell her mobile phone, camera and give him cash her parents gave her – all so that he could buy drugs – while threatening to kill her if she refused.
Ms Costello ended their relationship on Christmas Eve, 2019, after he accused her of seeing other men.
But he grabbed her by the throat, pushed her against a garden gate and threatened to bomb her family’s house and her sister’s house. The prosecutor said Ms Costello left and moved in with a friend on Anglesey.
He stalked her for the next five months from January to May this year. On January 26 this year, Hawley knocked on her door and “forced his way in”.
She tried to run, but he grabbed her hair and held her down. He demanded her PIN for her phone, and when she refused he “snapped the phone in two”, said the prosecutor.
He then grabbed a kitchen knife, puncturing her skin above her knee cap.
When she saw it he “apologised and hugged her”, said prosecutor Mr Wilson.
He insisted she get on a train and go with him to England warning he had a “van load of men outside ready to tie her up”.
The prosecutor said she packed her bags – “under supervision” from Hawley – and they walked with her wearing only her onesie to Rhosneigr Station for the journey.
But a friend had spotted the attack on her phone linked to CCTV camera at Ms Costello’s home and alerted the police.
But afterward the stalking continued, with Hawley warning in one Facebook message: “Just remember I know where all your family live.”
Police arrested him on June 1.
In a victim impact statement, Ms Costello said that Hawley had taken advantage of her “quiet and shy” nature.
She struggles to get out of bed sometimes.