Jail looms for beast who held woman as prisoner
AMONSTER faces years in jail for holding a woman prisoner in her bedroom and stubbing out a cigarette on her head – after accusing her of being a witch.
Serial woman beater Michael Bullen, from Skelmersdale, kept his partner captive for two days, a court heard.
The 43-year-old confiscated her phone and only allowed her out to go to the toilet under his watchful gaze.
Bullen on another occasion stubbed out the cigarette on her forehead as she slept.
He told her: “You put a curse on me and witches deserve to be burnt.”
Judge Paul Darlow adjourned sentencing for a fresh psychiatric report and sent Bullen back to prison.
Bullen was facing trial after he denied false imprisonment at the woman’s city home in June.
But he changed his plea at the last moment.
He had already admitted assaulting her causing actual bodily harm and two counts of common assault in May and June.
His victim bravely attended court to give evidence against him.
Paul Grumbar, for the Crown Prosecution Service, was asked to briefly outline the case to the jury panel who had been waiting for hours for the hearing.
He said the woman, who has asked not to be named, only met Bullen in the middle of May.
Mr Grumbar added that he moved into her flat – to where police were called on June 20.
The barrister said: “She was upset and worried and clearly terrified of him.”
Mr Grumbar added that she had been kept in the bedroom for two days and warned not to leave.
He said she was only allowed to leave to go to the toilet with him standing over her.
Mr Grumbar said: “He confiscated her phone and basically she was not allowed to do anything”.
He added she only escaped after the landlord, who lived in the property, returned home.
Plymouth Crown Court heard that she had also been punched and had her hair pulled.
Mr Grumbar said: “If that was not bad enough on one occasion she awoke because of some sort of burning and painful sensation. She awoke to find this defendant had put out a cigarette on her forehead.
“He told her: ‘You have put a curse on me and witches deserve to be burnt’.
“He poured hot coffee on her arm and she suffered very nasty burns.”
The court heard that Bullen, of Skelmersdale, had been convicted in his absence last year of assault on another woman.
The jury at Preston Crown Court also found him guilty of perverting the course of justice by threatening his victim and her mother if they did not withdraw their evidence.
Bullen faces consecutive sentences for the offences against the two women.
Police issued a public appeal for Bullen in June just after the latest series of offences. He faced Plymouth magistrates in August and has been remanded in custody ever since.
Judge Paul Darlow adjourned the case for a date to be fixed in about six weeks.
He has asked the psychiatrist to consider the danger that Bullen posed to the public.