Man who repeatedly beat girlfriend jailed for controlling behaviour

WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

A man who beat his pregnant girlfriend and refused to let male doctors see her during her labour has been jailed for three years today.

Reece Penkert, 20, controlled every aspect of his partner's life, telling her what she could wear and isolating her from friends and family, a court heard.

During their two-year relationship the victim suffered "months of isolation and emotional and physical abuse", prosecutors said.

She was not allowed to leave the house without him and Penkert confiscated her phone and ordered her to delete all social media accounts.

The victim said the relationship had started well. But three months in, unemployed Penkert stopped her from wearing certain clothes and constantly accused her of cheating. He then became violent and during one attack punched her so hard he fractured his own hand.

Penkert continued the same abusive behaviour even after his girlfriend fell pregnant.

When she was in labour he was obstructive towards doctors and would not initially allow any men to examine her, a court heard.

Medical professionals raised the alarm with police after the birth.

Penkert, from Brent, was found guilty of one count of controlling and coercive behaviour and one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm following a 15-day trial at Harrow Crown Court in January. He was jailed for three years at the same court today.

Controlling and coercive behaviour is domestic abuse that sees the victim being isolated from their support network and reliant on someone who assaults, threatens, or intimidates them. It was made a criminal offence in 2015.

Emma Harris, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said the victim had shown "immense bravery" by speaking out against her ex-partner at the trial.

“Penkert demonstrated extremely controlling behaviour, which included assaulting his partner and trying to isolate her from her friends and family,” she said.

“Having suffered months of isolation and emotional and physical abuse, the victim showed immense bravery by giving evidence during the trial, and I would like to thank her for the courage she has shown.

“I hope today’s sentence provides some comfort to the victim and shows the CPS’s commitment to prosecuting cases of domestic abuse.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in