Worried neighbour heard thug bullying and humiliating partner through the wall

The concerned neighbour on the Eastmoor estate in Wakefield said she could often heard Thomas Farrar shouting at the woman and making “degrading and abusive remarks”, prosecutor Adam Walker told Leeds Crown Court.

He was heard to call her a “fat c**t” and could be heard demanding to know who she was talking to on the phone, before the sounds of banging and crashing.

At one point Farrar went to visit the neighbour and told her that his partner no longer wished to be her friend, which was was untrue and was an attempt by him to isolate his partner from friends.

It was noticed that the downtrodden woman also began wearing looser-fitting clothes after Farrar told her to stop wearing tighter-fitting clothes because of her weight. She also became “withdrawn from social gatherings”, Mr Walker said.

The situation came to a head in May this year after 35-year-old Farrar and the woman had been out drinking in Wakefield with friends when he left the pub when the woman got up to dance.

He later sent her messages, some of which were “menacing”. When she got a taxi home a day later, she rang him and he was heard by the taxi driver to threaten her with violence.

When she got home he demanded to know were she had been and with whom. He was then seen to hit the woman, throw her on the stairs and pin her down using possibly his forearm against her neck. The taxi driver who dropped her off rang the police.

Farrar, of Newstead Avenue, Wakefield, denied wrongdoing but later admitted ABH, assault and coercive control between April 2021 and May 2023.

A pre-sentence report suggested Farrar conceded that his behaviour was “totally unacceptable”.

No mitigation was offered by Farrar’s barrister when the judge, Recorder Ayesha Smart, indicated she would not lock him up.

She told him: “You were absolutely horrible to this woman. It was persistent and you tried to deliberately humiliate her. But in my view you have genuine remorse for your actions.”

She gave him 18 months’ jail, suspended for 24 months, 150 hours of unpaid work and rehabilitation days.