A CONTROLLING boyfriend secretly used his partner’s phone to send false and abusive messages that appeared to be from her to her family and friends.

Penrith man Kyle Pelham, 26, who had previously served a jail term for similar controlling behaviour with another partner, sent the messages in an attempt to isolate his 17-year-old girlfriend, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

He also subjected her to violence and threatened to burn down the homes of her mum and grandmother. The defendant, of  Raiselands Croft, Penrith, admitted subjecting the teenager to coercive and controlling behaviour over two months.

Prosecutor David Polglase outlined the facts.

He said the victim and defendant began a relationship after they met via Snapchat. Initially, they would meet at various local hotels and go for meals out.

The teenager, now aged 18, eventually moved into the defendant’s home. “It didn’t take long before the coercive and controlling behaviour took over,” said the prosecutor.

Pelham took exception to the woman continuing to go out drinking with friends, and they argued because he had seen her in a car with another male.

On that occasion, he grabbed her face and pushed her on to a bed.

He then began taking control of her phone, sending messages to her parents, suggesting that she did not want to have contact with them.

He also used the phone to make it appear that she had sent abusive messages to friends.

Mr Polglase said: “He controlled who she could contact; she describes valuable photographs – memories of her interactions with friends and the like – being deleted.

"Again, it was the defendant’s jealous behaviour.”

Pelham changed her phone number and referred to harming other people she may have been in contact with. “He threatened to set fire to her mother’s and grandmother’s property,” continued the barrister.

The messages caused significant concern among the woman’s family and friends. They and colleagues noticed that the teenager was becoming gradually more distant from them.

The situation came to a head after the victim’s mum investigated.

She discovered that Pelham had a conviction for previous controlling and coercive behaviour.

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The mother waited in her car for her daughter outside her workplace and then as they talked her daughter broke down.

“She told her mum everything,” said Mr Polglase.

In her victim statement, the woman spoke of how her hair had changed because of how Pelham had pulled it. She said he had isolated her from her family and friends, and stopped her going to a funeral.

Left feeling anxious, she struggled to sleep and her work suffered and there was an impact on her relationships with family and friends.

“She wasn’t allowed to go to a friend’s birthday party because there was drinking and the defendant didn’t like it,” said Mr Polglase. The court heard that Pelham was given a 22-month jail term in 2020 for similar offending.

Tim Evans, defending, said the offending behaviour lasted at most for two months and a more serious allegation – involving false imprisonment – had not been proceeded with by the prosecution.

“He’s still young,” said Mr Evans, suggesting that immaturity was a factor.

Judge Michael Fanning said that Pelham’s jealousy underpinned his offending, and it was a form of domestic abuse, which had involved various methods of controlling the woman.

Jailing the defendant for seven and a half months, Judge Fanning told him: “You have to understand that you can’t behave in a domestic relationship in this way.”

A restraining order will ban any contact with the victim for five years.