Controlling bully held razor to girlfriend's throat, hissing: "Do you want me to kill you?"

A controlling bully held a razor to his girlfriend's face, hissing: "Do you want me to kill you?" Cowardly Steven Sheridan boasted his fists were his ‘secret weapon’.

His partner said she felt as though she was in a 'hellhole'. The 22-year-old called the young woman a 'freak and a weirdo' - and repeatedly punched her, leaving her with a black eye.

She stopped going on social media as he told her it was for ‘s**gs’. Sheridan gave her a curfew and on one shocking occasion, threw her dog across the room.

The woman, who was 19 at the time, feared leaving and the dog being at risk, Minshull Street Crown Court heard.

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The relationship finally came to an end following a row in which Sheridan pulled her around by her hair and punched her in the face.

Sheridan, from Droylsden, Tameside, pleaded guilty to engaging in controlling or coercive behaviour; multiple counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm; and making threats to kill. He was handed a suspended sentence after spending more than a year in custody.

Prosecutor Maria Brannan earlier said the relationship began in July 2021 after Sheridan and the woman met on Facebook. After five months, she moved in with him and they got a dog, but he became ‘increasingly aggressive’.

“The defendant told her his fists were his secret weapon. He used abusive language towards her calling her ‘fat, freak and weirdo’ and said she had the mentality of a five-year-old,” she said.

“She gave up work part-way through the relationship because of the injuries she was trying to hide. She lost a huge amount of weight because the defendant was skinny and felt she should give up food rather than him.”

The court heard a stranger