Craig Green: Woman is 'a shell of the person' she was before Barnsley abuser's campaign of control

“I’m a shell of the person I was” - Those are the heartbreaking words of a woman who was subjected to a persistent campaign of control, abuse, manipulation and threats at the hands of her partner, which continued even after their relationship came to an end. 

The woman targeted by defendant, Craig Green, described how the years of ‘control’ he forced upon her resulted in her going from being an ‘outgoing’ person - often described as being ‘the life and soul of the party’ - to feeling so ‘empty,’ isolated from, and unrecognisable to, her loved ones that it left them ‘heartbroken’. 

“I feel nothing inside…I’m a shell of the person I was,” the complainant said in a statement to Sheffield Crown Court, adding that she feels like it will ‘take years’ for her to get anywhere near to being the person she was, prior to her relationship with Green. 

While their relationship was initially ‘good,’ Matthew Burdon, prosecuting, said Green, aged 38, started to become ‘jealous and possessive’. 

“If she went out drinking with her friends, he would follow her. She describes that the relationship became suffocating,” Mr Burdon said. 

Mr Burdon detailed how the relationship went through a ‘happy period’ during a time when he knew exactly where she was and what she was doing, but things ‘deteriorated’ when that control was taken away. 

“He became aggressive, and would regularly shout at her, grabbing at her arms…this behaviour began happening so often that it effectively became normal to her,” Mr Burdon told a hearing held on April 15, 2024. 

Even after the complainant ended the relationship, Green continued to verbally abuse the complainant, calling her ‘unpleasant names,’ often accusing her of ‘having an affair’ and frequently contacting her, and others, to ask where she was. 

“He would phone her place of work, he would ask to speak to her to check to see if she was there. He left voicemail messages, in which he threatened to kill her,” Mr Burdon said.

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During another incident, Green ‘barged’ into the complainant’s address; and upon being asked to leave by her mother, he told her mother to ‘drop dead’ and ‘spat in her face,’ the court heard. 

Green also caused damage to an item within the property during the same incident. 

He continued to bombard the complainant with abusive messages, including one in which he threatened to ‘slit her throat’. 

The complainant went to the police and Green was arrested, but he answered ‘no comment’ to all questions posed during his interview. 

Green, of Highgate Lane, Barnsley, subsequently acknowledged his wrongdoing, however, when he pleaded guilty to a number of offences including controlling and coercive behaviour, stalking, criminal damage and assault by beating, relating to his treatment of the complainant’s mother. 

Mr Burdon told the court that Green has a criminal record of four offences from three previous court appearances, which includes convictions for a Section 20 assault and two offences of criminal damage. 

Referring to Green’s pre-sentence report, James Burley, defending, said he hoped the court accepts that his client has shown ‘genuine contrition’ throughout. 

Mr Burley continued: “He accepts what he has done, and is doing all he can to show the court - and his ex-partner - that he is doing all he can to change.”

Green, Mr Burley said, now accepts that the ‘chain’ between him and the complainant ‘has to be broken’.

Mr Burley said Green’s parents are ‘very supportive of him, while not excusing his behaviour’; and are able to ‘provide him with a stable foundation, in which to grow and move forward’. 

Jailing Green for 28 months, Judge Sarah Wright told him: “You became excessively jealous and possessive, exercising controlling and coercive behaviour, threats and violence against her, making derogatory comments against her.”

“You demanded to know where she was and what she was doing. When she separated from you, you continued to try and exert control over her.”

“Your behaviour has left her feeling worthless and has affected her self-esteem.”

Judge Wright also granted a restraining order, which prohibits Green from contacting the complainant for a period of 10 years.