Sheffield Crown Court: Jail for creepy man who hid cameras in partner's home and tracker and recorder in car

Geoffrey Parr was brought before Sheffield Crown Court, sitting remotely at Grimsby Crown Court, to be sentenced on July 7 after admitting to a charge of controlling and coercive behaviour, relating to both physical and mental abuse carried out against his former partner, at an earlier hearing.

As she sent him to prison, Judge Sophie McKone told Parr: “Over a prolonged period, you behaved in a controlling way over your former partner. You used a number of different methods, some of which were sophisticated.

“You put cameras in the house so you could watch her, which is a form of control, you checked her phone constantly and damaged many phones.”

Prosecuting barrister, Neil Coxon, told the court how Parr, aged 48, was in a relationship with his former partner, the complainant, for around seven years.

He said the complainant has described how things were ‘good’ between them at the beginning, but noted that his behaviour changed after he came to live with her in the final two years of their relationship.

Mr Coxon said that among the physical assaults Parr, of St Mary’s Road, Goldthorpe, Barnsley, subjected the complainant to was an incident in 2020, in which he strangled her until she passed out; and a work colleague noted seeing her at work on two occasions in March of that year with a black eye and bruising.

“The complainant began to form the impression that it wasn’t only deteriorating in terms of physical abuse but also other forms of abuse...she began to form the impression he was trying to control her, and what she did,” Mr Coxon said.

In addition to monitoring the complainant by watching her on cameras he had hidden in the home they shared, the complainant said Parr also placed a tracker and sound recorder in her car.

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Mr Coxon said Parr also regularly checked her social media, and deleted all of her male friends from her accounts, as well as breaking around 20 mobile phones belonging to her, after going through them.

The courageous complainant finally went to the police in April this year, a day after Parr bombarded her with 40 text messages while she was out with friends, and assaulted her by hitting the woman on her hip after she returned home.

In a moving statement to the court, the complainant described the devastating impact of Parr’s abuse, which resulted in her losing her self-confidence and ‘crying every night out of frustration’ and ‘feeling there was no way of escaping’.

“I got to the stage where I thought the only way I could get away from him was to kill myself, but I thought of my children and pulled myself through,” she said.

Mr Coxon said Parr has a number of previous offences, including a 2015 harassment conviction, carried out against another former partner.

Defending, Katy Rafter, said: “He asks me to tell the court he’s truly sorry for how the relationship came to an end, he’s truly sorry for his behaviour...he tells me he’s lost everything as a result of these proceedings.”

Judge McKone jailed Parr for 27 months and granted a restraining order which prevents Parr from contacting the complainant indefintely.

*Victims and survivors of domestic abuse can contact specialist charity, IDAS, which supports anyone experiencing or affected by domestic abuse or sexual violence in Yorkshire, via their website or by calling 0808 808 2241 (Sheffield) or 03000 110 110 (Barnsley).