Controlling boyfriend jailed after imposing Instagram ban

A MAN who banned his girlfriend from using Snapchat and controlled her use of Instagram has been jailed after a relationship that lasted less than a month.

Matthew Bailey, 24, prohibited Molly Cunliffe, 19, a care assistant, from posting selfies on Snapchat, ordered her not to swap Facebook and Instagram messages with men and told her she was not allowed to put kisses at the end of social media posts.

Bailey would regularly check Miss Cunliffe’s mobile phone, tell her what to wear and demanded she send him pictures to prove she was at home.

During a four-week romance, Bailey also bombarded Miss Cunliffe with calls – sometimes up to 30 in the space of half an hour – and then falsely accused her of cheating on him whenever she did not answer.

In one phone call, Bailey warned her: “You’ll get a car through your front window and I’ll stab you in the neck. You know what I’m capable of.”

Miss Cunliffe, from Bolton, tried to end the relationship but Bailey then threatened to kill her family.

At Manchester magistrates’ court, Bailey, from Horwich, near Bolton, was jailed for six months after he was found guilty of engaging in controlling or coercive behaviour in an intimate relationship. He was also barred from contacting Miss Cunliffe for five years.

The court heard they met in April having found each other on Instagram.

The pair went to Five Guys in Manchester for their first date and Miss Cunliffe told the hearing: “We saw each other for four days in a row and at first he was good but he started getting controlling. On day two, we became official – then the name calling started on day four. I felt devastated and upset.

“We had to meet at certain times, and I have to be up and dressed at certain times.

“He would ring me several times in the morning and would accuse me of sleeping with someone else if I didn’t answer. I felt like I was trapped.

“I tried to end the relationship three times but he kept saying he would change only to then threaten to kill me and my family.”

Bailey denied wrongdoing and said: “She had never said that I shouldn’t call. It didn’t bother me at first that she was on her phone a lot, but I didn’t want to be in a relationship with someone who was always on their phone.”