Bully jailed for controlling behaviour and assault on woman

Marek Raul was branded ‘vicious and remorseless’ by a judge for his actions over two years during an intimate relationship.

The 37-year-old subjected his victim to a barrage of expletive-laden and disgusting verbal abuse, as well as physical violence.

The Czech national also at times left her ‘destitute and homeless’, and even pressured her into getting an abortion against her will.

Raul appeared at Liverpool Crown Court to be sentenced on charges of controlling and coercive behaviour and common assault.

Olivia Beesley, prosecuting, explained how the indictment period spanned from the start of April 2019 through to the beginning of April 2021.

The defendant and complainant were in a relationship for four years after meeting in April 2017, and she moved from Manchester and gave up her taxi business to move in with him in Orford, Warrington.

During the period, she fell pregnant with Raul and was excited to tell him, but when she did he was ‘indifferent and angry’.

He called her stupid, said he did not want to have a child with ‘someone like her’ and grabbed her around the throat.

The structural engineer begged her to have an abortion, which she agreed to, despite it going against her religious beliefs.

On July 18, 2020, he accused her of ‘spoiling his day’ and said she should be ‘thankful’ to him for allowing her to be ‘part of his world’, before hitting her five times with a slipper and a book.

Audio of the incident was recorded by her on her phone, during which he called her ‘retarded’, while he also asked her rhetorical questions to belittle her, such as who was the most intelligent and how much she had contributed to the ‘national budget’.

Throughout the period, he would hurl insults towards her multiple times, including ‘idiot, c**t, arsehole and retard’, and he would often lecture her on her way of life.

The defendant would refuse to let her collect her belongings after kicking her out, including one time when she was not fully dressed, and she was forced to sleep in her car on more than one occasion.

In December 2020, he threatened to both throw her out of a window and continually hit her with a baseball bat until her brain ‘switched off’.

Raul continually told her he was ‘educating her’ when he was in fact treating her ‘like a dog’, and she changed as a person during the relationship from being self-confident to frequently upset.

In April last year, another incident occurred while they were having a BBQ on private land he owned on Milton Street in Sutton Manor, St Helens.

He belittled her and swore at her, grabbed her by the neck with both hands, threw her to the floor and pushed her over as she tried to get up.

While she was ‘wet, cold and dirty’, she begged him to allow her to have a shower in his property and to collect her belongings, but he took his gloves off and slapped her four times.

Marek Raul was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court

Another incident voice recorded on her phone saw him hit her with a stick, leaving her with bruises.

Days later, she left work with a colleague and found him waiting for her on his motorbike. She was shaking and in fear, and while in the car home she told her colleague that Raul had assaulted her.

The victim later went to Warrington Police Station after being urged to report it, but she was followed there by the defendant on his bike.

She stayed in the car until her friend arrived, at which point the defendant said: “Why are you doing this to me, f*****g up my life.”

He was witnessed on CCTV waiting for her outside the police station, and later ‘bombarded’ her with texts to ‘intimidate’ her to stop her making a complaint to the police.

In an impact statement, the complainant said she felt ‘humiliated, hurt, distraught and anxious’ by him making out that she did everything wrong.

She added that if he is not punished, his actions will be ‘repeated over and over’, commenting that she wanted to ‘protect other victims’.

Ms Beesley spoke of how Raul demonstrated ‘persistent’ controlling and coercive behaviour over a long period to ‘humiliate and degrade’, leaving the woman fearful of violence.

She also spoke of the defendant’s sole previous conviction, when he was fined in October 2020 for stealing £7,000 worth of solar panels from an Orford business.

In his defence, Peter Killen, asked the court to draw back from immediate custody, citing references which described Raul’s behaviour as being ‘out of character’, including by a former partner.

But this was rejected by recorder David Knifton, who said: “This is a particularly bad example of controlling and coercive behaviour, which illustrates why Parliament felt the need to legislate it.

“What you are is a vicious bully, who turned a loving and caring relationship into a toxic and controlling one.

“You subjected her to threats and actual violence, including strangulation and striking her with slippers, gloves and a stick.

“You pushed her into an abortion against her will, used vile language to belittle and humiliate and evicted her from her home.

“The effect of your course of conduct changed a confident and gregarious woman into a submissive and frightened one.”

The judge praised the woman for her courage to come forward, expressed doubts over whether Raul’s remorse was genuine and said that only prison could be justified.

“You remain in denial of your offending, seek to minimise your actions and blame your former partner,” he added.

Raul, of Northway in Orford, was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay £2,000 in compensation to his victim.

He must also abide by the terms of a restraining order not to contact her in any way for the next 10 years.