Peterlee man strangled partner with neighbours hearing her screams

Peterlee's Macauley Turner carried out a shocking campaign of abuse against his partner.

He pressured her to give up her job, stopped her being in the company of any men, threatened her with violence and used strangulation as a regular weapon to keep her under control.

Durham Crown Court heard she came to accept the bruising he would cause her almost as common place.

Matters reached a hiatus on New Year’s Day when a dropped 999 call was made reporting she was being strangled.

It led to police attending Grasmere Road, in Peterlee, and neighbours, alerted by the sound of screaming, pointed officers in the direction of their home.

When arrested and interviewed, the defendant claimed his partner had “complex PTSD” and said by involving police it was, “a betrayal”.

He said a lack of money had led to arguments, but he claimed they bickered, “as all couples do”.

Turner, formerly of Grasmere Road, and of a relative’s address in Redcar, was charged with controlling and coercive behaviour in a relationship and intentional strangulation.

Her was bailed on condition that he did not contact his by then ex-partner.

After letters were then sent to her, he was remanded in custody, but after a trial date was set in June, he was granted bail by a judge.

The court heard that while on bail, living at the Redcar address, he had access to a laptop and sent threatening messages to his former partner, telling her she had “f***ed up big time”, threatening he would “come for her”, claiming he did not care about his bail conditions.

Other messages were sent to witnesses in the case, denigrated his ex-partner, while he also made threats to contact her new employers, all of which led to him being remanded back into custody.

Turner, 29, went on trial last month and was not only found guilty of the original two charges, but also of new counts of stalking and two of witness intimidation.

In her victim statement, which she read to the court, Turner’s ex-partner said when she met the defendant she had been “confident”, “self-assured” and “happy” and had, “a strong relationship with friends”, all of which he set about destroying, making her feel “worthless and terrified”.

She said since leaving Turner her health has improved, her relationship with her family is stronger than before and she is back in work, rebuilding her life.

Shaun Dryden, in mitigation, said the defendant is relatively lightly convicted, with the only offences on his record being for assault of an emergency worker in 2021 and for battery, for which he received an 18-week suspended prison sentence in 2025.

His conviction at trial last month put him in breach of that sentence

Mr Dryden said the offending was against a background of a family bereavement to which the defendant reacted by drinking heavily and, “taking copious amounts of drugs, which hasn’t helped him.”

Referring to the relationship Mr Dryden added: “He accepts it’s well and truly over and will never be resumed.”

Judge Nathan Adams told Turner: “The relationship was characterised by your controlling and coercive behaviour and violence.

“It reached a position where she gave up her employment.

“As a result, her financial position became far worse and she spiralled further into debt.

“You controlled her as to who she could see and where she could go.

“She was often covered in bruises, to which she was dismissive, accepting it as part and parcel of a relationship in which strangulation was also a common theme, as you said, ‘to keep her quiet’.

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“On one occasion as you strangled her you told her it would be 'a long sleep', but she screamed and alerted neighbours, leading to the police being called.”

Judge Adams imposed prison sentences totalling 45 months, including three months of the suspended sentence.

The judge also made the defendant subject of a ten-year restraining order, prohibiting contact and approaching the victim.