AN Oldham man who carried out coercive and controlling behaviour against his former partner and mother to his children has been jailed for almost three years.

Matthew Taylor was in a relationship with the woman for seven years, and was frequently violent and degrading towards her, including pulling out bits of her hair and attacking her when pregnant.

He appeared in Manchester Minshull Street Court this week to be sentenced for behaviour running from December 2015 until October last year.

The 31-year-old fell foul of legislation which came into being five years ago, but the court heard he had been bullying in the relationship since 2012.

Prosecutor Peter Warne said: "He had a go at her for how long she was out for, he would accuse her of sleeping with other people.

“Even after she did the school run he would accuse her of sleep with someone else even though she had been out for only 40 minutes.

“He bruised her face on one occasion, she did not do school runs for two weeks after because he did not want anyone to see the damage he had done.

“He called her a terrible girlfriend, a slag, and said she did not belong on this earth.

“Between 2018 and 2019 when she was pregnant he grabbed her hair and threw her around.”

“‘He said ‘if I can’t have you no one can have you.’"

Sean Sullivan, defending, said his client had mental health difficulties, saying a report had found he had ADHD and PTSD.

He added: “He has been in custody since 16 December 2019, so has served 51 weeks already. He accepts his behaviour has been wrong, he has not sought to minimise it.”

But Judge Maurice Greene, jailing Taylor, of no fixed abode, for 33 months, rejected the suggestion that these difficulties had been responsible for the crime.

He said: “The problem is he has got is that it is over such a long period of time, it could be argued it has had some effect but it seems to me it is limited because there were opportunities to do something about it over all these years."

The judge also imposed a restraining order prohibiting him from attending the address, contacting his former partner at all except through a solicitor and going near the schools of any of the children.

The order will run indefinitely until appealed.