I taught my kids to stand up to bullies but I never had a chance against you

A MAN who subjected his partner to ‘horrific emotional abuse’ has been jailed and slapped with a 10-year restraining order, police have revealed.

- BY PAUL BRITTON

Former professional boxer Richard Hayles’ victim bravely told a court how she feared for her life during their relationship.

“I always taught my children to stand up to bullies, but I never stood a chance against you,” she said in a deeply personal statement she stood up and read out to a judge as Hayles was sentenced for coercive and controlling behaviour.

“So they had to watch as you broke me down more and more every day. And that’s why I am stood here today, for them.”

She spoke of being ‘degraded and humiliated’ at his hands - and how he taunted her about suicide.

The prosecution said Hayles left her in debt, issued veiled threats - and even played her videos of ‘how a woman should act’.

Hayles, 46, of Greenview Drive, Rochdale, originally pleaded not guilty to engaging in controlling/coercive behaviour in an intimate/family relationship, but changed his plea to guilty during his trial.

At Sheffield Crown Court, he was jailed for three years and three months.