A “violent and controlling bully” who broke the neck of his partner, leaving her paralysed and her life “destroyed”, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Robert Easom, a landscape gardener, violently assaulted Trudi Burgess, a schoolteacher and former singer, when she threatened to leave him after enduring eight years of coercive, controlling behaviour.
A court heard that Easom, 57, pinned Burgess down in a rage and pushed her head into her body until her neck snapped. He denied a charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent but was found guilty after 27 minutes of deliberation by a jury at Preston crown court in November.
He had admitted causing the injury but denied intending to cause her serious harm. Burgess suffered a complete spinal cord injury and is now tetraplegic. She will never walk again, requires continuous care, is in constant pain, cannot cough without help, has no use of her hands and no control over her bladder and bowel functions.
Trudi Burgess. Photograph: Lancashire police
Burgess, 57, of Chorley, Lancashire, is still in hospital in a spinal injuries rehabilitation unit, but attended Easom’s sentencing hearing in person to deliver her victim impact statement. She said her life had been destroyed by Easom, who had a “true Jekyll and Hyde personality”.
“I have been emotionally shattered,” she said. “I suffer from bouts of depression, daily anxiety, symptoms of PTSD, flashbacks and nightmares that wake me up.
“I feel trapped and powerless. Everything that once gave me joy, now feels out of reach. My future has been rewritten and not by choice.”
The court heard that Easom engaged in a relentless campaign of coercive and controlling behaviour, regularly verbally abusing Burgess and, at times, physically assaulting her. He would berate her, saying she was “a fucking teacher bitch”.
Sarah Magill, prosecuting, told the hearing that one minute Burgess would feel loved by Easom, “the next he would hurt her, humiliate her and make her feel small”.
Burgess said she was too ashamed to let her family know what was happening but she documented the abuse in the notes section of her phone. Examples included forcing her to clean up spilled food, pushing her against furniture, shouting at her, driving dangerously to frighten her, and head-butting her.
In one incident during a trip to York in 2018 Easom “switched” into a rage, dragged Burgess around a bathroom, and threatened her by quoting from Rambo: “Don’t push or I’ll give you a war you don’t need.” When she tried to leave, he begged her to stay and expressed remorse.
The following year Easom violently grabbed the wine Burgess was holding and dragged her upstairs by the head, banging her against each step.
In 2021, again in York, Easom placed a sheet over Burgess’s head and strangled her, leaving her terrified for her life. The next day he dismissed it, claiming he was “just trying to teach her a lesson”.
The court heard that Burgess knew she needed to leave but became trapped in a cycle of abuse. With her self-esteem eroded, she was left confused and broken down. When Burgess attempted to leave, Easom would belittle her, call her “useless” and say she could not cope without him.
On the day she left, Easom had asked Burgess if she was making cottage pie that evening which was their custom. She said she wasn’t and was leaving and Easom flew into an “uncontrollable rage”.
Burgess heard her neck crack in the assault and “all the feeling left her body”, said Magill.
Jailing Easom, of Chipping, Lancashire, Judge Altham, the recorder of Preston, said no sentence could “begin to equal the harm you caused”. He said Easom would be eligible for parole after 16 years.
The court heard that Burgess’s husband, Craig Burgess, died from brain cancer and she was still grieving his death when she met Easom. They did fall in love, the court heard, and Easom could be loving and considerate on days he was not in a rage.
The court also heard victim impact statements delivered in person by Burgess’s grownup children, Gina and Jackson.
They set up a GoFundMe page for the huge, life-changing costs the family face in the future. They wrote: “Our goal is to make sure the rest of her life is as safe, dignified, and stable as possible after a catastrophic spinal injury inflicted on her by her partner.”
They also posted a YouTube link of their mother and father performing at Ronnie Scott’s club in London in 1993 – “a reminder of who she is beyond her injury”. So far £188,000 has been raised.
Easom also pleaded guilty to two charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one of controlling and coercive behaviour.
