Case No. Case-No.-LV21P00249

14.My findings are set out below as I set out her evidence which I accept and find on the balance of probability. 15.Their relationship began when he moved her into a flat in (redacted). He went down to (redacted) and said that he was staying with his son which she said turned out to be his nephew. He said that he had bumped into a woman who, unbeknown to him, had given birth to his child and he wanted to maintain contact with that child. When the father had gone to (redacted), he would come back every other week or month but would be in constant telephone communication. He then moved the mother to (redacted), down the road from E. She had been in (redacted) initially. She went to a refuge. He found her. Indeed, he found the mother in her refuge as well. When the father was arrested, she had given a letter to E explaining what had happened. At that time, she was unaware that E was a second victim. 16.The father contacted her on the telephone from prison on the day of his sentence saying that he wished to have contact with A. At that stage, she was unable, emotionally, to cope with that request and said no. He called back later. She had then calmed down. They started discussing him having contact with his son. She had no experience of dealing with prisons whereas the father had extensive experience. He advised on steps that she would need to take to enable this to happen. He advised her to change her name by deed poll, which she did, to (redacted). Once she had done that, he sent a visiting order in that name, which appears at G57. Initially, he said he wanted to see the mother on her own and she agreed to do that as she thought it might enable her to get things off her chest and achieve some closure. In discussing contact, she suggested that social workers should take A in, but the father had said it would upset him because when he was young and in care, social workers had taken him to see his father in prison which he did not like. He said that he was more comfortable if A came in with the mother.17.She found the first visit was not comfortable but thereafter, when she attended, she brought A in. It then became more comfortable. Over the visits A, though initially clingy, became more familiar with the father and became more comfortable in his presence. Overall, there were about nine or 10 visits she agreed with B. The father advised her that if she contacted the prison, she could not do it in her own name because that would flag up with the prison. That was why he told her to change her name by deed poll. She changed it to (redacted) because (redacted) was her middle name and (redacted) was the family name. She chose the name, but he told her how to do it. He also gave her his prison number so that she could use it on correspondence. When writing to him, she had to put the prison number on it. Had he not given her the prison number, she would not have known it. When they met, he would hug her. Indeed, he began to pass comment that it was always him hugging her and why was she not hugging him.18.Over time, she became comfortable speaking to him. He asked her to have different aliases for different letters and phone call PINs. Written materials tended to be by email. She also sent him three books. At one stage, a person called G became involved as a third-party conduit. She had said that her husband was in prison with the father and that they were friends so she would help with communication. In terms of telephone communications, the father had a PIN phone in his cell. He could have a number added to that as an authorised number. The prison holds a list of approved people that he can call. She said that she would get PIN calls on a daily basis, multiple times a day. Calls were predominantly by mobile phone. She was unable to telephone him. He was not meant to have a mobile. He would message on different numbers. 19.As time went on, communications became more and more. He would ask for her address on visits. She was visiting twice a month. She thought that the relationship had resumed. On the telephone, he would tell her that he loved her. He told her once to get an engagement ring and that he wanted a family with her. She felt safe at that point as he could not do the things, he used to do to her, but she was not totally comfortable because she refused to give her address. The mother had set up a third-party post box. At one stage, the father asked for pictures of the inside of her house. She had sent him a fake address of where she lived. He said he did a Google Maps search and could see that the windows were different, and therefore, she was not telling him the truth. The father started trying to steer her down the road that if she retracted her evidence given to the police and the Court in the criminal proceedings, then he would be able to come out and they could live together happily ever after. He had denied carrying out any of the offences in respect of E. The mother said she did not accept what the father said as, by then, she had spoken to E. 20.He said to the mother that if she said something, then the case would collapse. In addition, he was saying that he did not feel like a proper dad. She should ask him for money, in writing. She was not comfortable with this. At one point, he got aggressive when she would not disclose her home address. Eventually, she realised that this was part of the father trying to engineer a basis for a successful appeal. This, I find to be a particularly sinister aspect of the case. I find that the main motives of the father all along were to beguile the mother into retracting her account given to the police and to the Crown Court, or at the very least, to use the mother to create evidence and cast doubt on her account and/or her motives. Indeed, I find that this father will do whatever it takes to try to undermine his convictions. Whilst I accept that the father does love his son and would like to be involved in his life, his major objective at the moment is to have his convictions overturned.21.The mother began to understand that she could not trust herself as well as she thought and had not been thinking as well as she should have been. She decided to contact Social Services and the police. Her counselling had begun in September 2020, and she had carried out a domestic abuse course in April 2021 and a second in May 2021. She had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in 2021 and is on medication. This evidence arose during her oral evidence. Whilst no medical evidence was adduced to support this oral evidence, in my judgment, she was telling me the truth. In my judgment, this father remains a highly dangerous individual for this mother who is determined to try and overturn his convictions by whatever means he can employ. In his sentencing remarks, HHJ ‘Z’ said this:“You are a plausible, sophisticated individual who quickly insinuated yourself into the affections of these two young women. Certainly, one of them, C, fell in love with you. E did not but she plainly had some compulsion towards you. Turning, first of all, to C, you met her in early 2016, and, quickly, you were living together in your flat, and then you subjected her to both psychological and physical coercion over a period right to the end of 2017, which involved frequent beatings and humiliation, on occasions, forcibly inflicting intercourse upon her when she did not want it, both anal, vaginal and oral. She did not have the strength to resist you and became subjugated. It is right to say that on many occasions, she agreed to consensual sex as she said she loved you, but you had another side of your personality which saw its outlet in controlling her, battering her and raping her repeatedly. On one occasion, you threatened to kill her and her unborn child, which is completely, as are all the offences, unforgivable. This was in relation to her, alone, a campaign of forced sex, in my judgment”.Nothing has changed as far as the father is concerned. There is no insight into the impact of his actions upon the mother that form the basis of his convictions, nor indeed, the fact that post-conviction he continued to control and manipulate her emotionally. Unless prevented, it is likely that that would continue by whatever means the father could find.