A DAD has been jailed for 'humiliating and manipulating' his ex-partner.

Michael Royston, 29, accused his ex-girlfriend of cheating, controlled who she could see, what she could wear and when she could wash over a period of 1,000 days, a court heard.

He was sentenced at Preston Crown Court on March 18 after pleading guilty to controlling and coercive behaviour in an intimate or family relationship between 2019 – 2021.

Prosecutor Eddy Steele said Royston made the complainant quit her jobs due to his ‘jealous and possessive behaviour’.

The court heard the defendant insisted his ex-partner take another pregnancy test when she fell pregnant with their daughter in July 2019 after they had moved to Barrow earlier in the year.

When she had given birth, the defendant became irritable and angry when she asked him to change the baby, the court heard.

“He would check her phone to see who she had been messaging and would prevent her from visiting family and friends,” Mr Steele said.

"She felt isolated and closed off.

“The defendant would ask who she was wearing makeup for and would accuse her of having an affair.

“He also said she was a bad mother to their daughter and would bombard her with abusive text messages.”

Royston was also sentenced after he pleaded guilty to charges of harassment and threatening to disclose private sexual images.

The latter culminated when the defendant threatened to post a photograph on social media of the complainant nude from the waist down after she had not been responding to the defendant’s messages, the court heard.

In her victim personal statement the complainant said she believed Royston was using the threat of posting the images as 'leverage'.

The court heard the defendant’s actions forced his ex-girlfriend to move home, change phone number and email address.

Mr Steele read into the record the complainant’s impact statement.

In the statement, she said: “It was his way or the highway. I have been humiliated and manipulated. I live in fear, but I still have a heart. That is one thing he will never take away from me.

“I just want to be free of him.”

In mitigation, David Trainor said his client was effectively a man of good character having only had one previous caution.

Mr Trainor said: “He has been diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety, borderline personality disorder and emotionally unstable personality disorder.

“His mental health stems back to childhood abuse issues. There is a sufficient link between his diagnosis’ and his offending.

“Alcohol and drug misuse were used as coping mechanisms from his childhood issues. However, he accepts his behaviour was terrible, accepts responsibility and expresses remorse. He is making positive steps in prison to change his life.”

The court heard part of the timescale of the offences were committed whilst the defendant was on police bail and under investigation.

His Honour Judge Graham Knowles KC described the offences as ‘serious and unpleasant’.

Sentencing Royston, of no fixed abode, to three years prison, Judge Knowles KC added: “The affects you caused to your victim are quite dreadful. She was isolated many times by you. You controlled and coerced her.

“It is clear you pose a high risk to people, in particular those who you get into a relationship with.”

Royston was also made the subject of an indefinite restraining order.