A BULLY who intentionally strangled his girlfriend and behaved in a way which attempted to control her has been locked up.

Lewis Shackleton was given a ‘last chance’ by the courts in September last year after he threatened to blow up his ex’s flat.

But the 22-year-old dad ignored this warning by threatening to kill his partner and using violence towards her.

He was charged with intentional strangulation, making threats to kill and engaging in controlling and coercive behaviour, and he appeared before Crewe Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, October 6 to stand trial.

Shackleton was convicted on all three counts after pleading not guilty, and he was sentenced that same day.

Prosecutor Emily Comer spoke of how the repeated or continuous controlling and coercive behaviour spanned a period of more than seven months in Warrington.

This saw the defendant use physical and emotional violence towards his girlfriend, check her locations and threaten suicide, knowing that such behaviour would have a serious effect on her.

On August 4, Shackleton intentionally strangled her and made threats to kill her, intending that she would fear that the threat would be carried out.

The court was informed of his previous convictions, which include a suspended prison sentence from September for threatening to destroy property.

At the time, the court was told that Shackleton made the unnerving threat during a phone call with his former partner following the breakdown of their ‘tempestuous and turbulent’ relationship.

A recording played in court revealed how he threatened to ‘put her door through and blow up the gaff’.

The victim told the court she was left ‘paranoid’, adding: “I wish it was just a nightmare I could wake up from. It is scary to think about it – he has no remorse.”

His solicitor told the court that he was ‘genuinely remorseful’, and Shackleton was handed a 20-week imprisonment suspended for two years.

Before sentencing, district judge Nicholas Sanders said: “You need to take a good, long, hard look at yourself and where you are in life, and where you need to go from here.

“You have come close today to going into immediate custody. This is realistically the last chance you’re going to get.

“Sort yourself out – take a long, hard look at yourself and start looking forward.”

But the defendant failed to take heed of this warning before committing this latest string of alarming offences.

Magistrates remarked that only immediate custody was appropriate, given that this was another domestic abuse case committed while subject to a suspended sentence for a domestic offence.

Shackleton, of York Avenue in Culcheth, was sentenced to 72 weeks in prison and ordered to pay costs to the Crown Prosecution Service of £620.

In addition, the court approved a restraining order prohibiting the defendant from contacting the victim by any means or enter a named Warrington street.