This list includes men who subjected women to horrific physical and emotional abuse
Hundreds of men walk through Liverpool Crown Court having abused and attacked women. Victims at the hands of these men are often traumatised and have long-lasting scars following their ordeals.
Not only do they have to go through the trauma of being interviewed by officers, many of them also give evidence in court and relive their ordeals over and over again. One man subjected a woman to years of physical, emotional and financial abuse including preventing her from leaving her home, physically assaulting her and spreading lies to her family and friends.
Another abuser covered his partner in dog faeces and urine following a sickening attack. Many of the victims who were abused by the men in the list were former partners.
READ MORE: Police cordon off road near Lime Street Station after man assaulted in early hoursREAD MORE: Man controlled woman’s phone, took her to work and assaulted her
This is not an exhaustive list, however we have included prominent cases. Here are 13 men who all women in Merseyside need to know about.
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Martin Speakman
A man subjected a woman to years of physical, emotional and financial abuse including preventing her from leaving her home, physically assaulting her and spreading lies to her family and friends. Martin Speakman appeared in Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday, September 19, after pleading guilty to the horrifying abuse.
It was revealed how Speakman subjected his victim to a long list of abuse. He controlled her phone, monitored her activity, abused and demeaned her in front of her children, controlled all of her bank accounts and money, stopped her buying any luxuries for herself, took her to work with him and stopped her seeing any of her family.
Speakman, 37, of Queens Drive, Newton-le-Willows, appeared before the courts where he was sentenced to four years and seven months in prison for controlling and coercive behaviour and assault. He was also given an indefinite restraining order.
Jack Laffey
Jack Laffey threatened to “snap the necks” of both his girlfriend and dachshund puppy under the belief that she would begin seeing other men if he was sent to prison. This led to him pursuing her around the streets in a car, jumping onto the bonnet of her vehicle and booting the windscreen. The thug then brushed his actions off as “a bit of murder with his bird”.
Liverpool Crown Court heard on Monday, September 16 that Laffey had been in a relationship with his former girlfriend since January this year before the couple bought a dachshund puppy called Timmy on April 24. But they began to argue around this time as he “believed she would sleep with other people while he was in jail”, with the 19-year-old apparently being wanted by Merseyside Police and intending to hand himself in, and he “did not want her to have the dog any more”.
On April 26, Laffey phoned his partner from a withheld number 20 times “in a short period”. Fearing that Laffey would visit her home, the victim left the address in her car.
She was then faced with a torrent abuse from Laffey, including threats to burn her house down, that he would attack her dad and snap her and her dog’s neck. The young woman was then followed by Laffey who repeatedly attacked her car.
He was previously handed a six-month suspended prison sentence in February this year for dangerous driving and aggravated vehicle taking. It came after Laffey was caught behind the wheel of a Vauxhall Grandland, which a “vulnerable female had been coerced into taking out a hired agreement on” before the car was taken from her, at 70mph in a 30mph on Netherfield Road in Everton and failing to stop for the police.
Laffey admitted criminal damage, a malicious communications offence, driving while disqualified, driving without insurance and breaching a suspended sentence order. Appearing in court via video link seated in a wheelchair, he was handed a year in a young offenders’ institute by Judge David Potter.
Alan Hall
A serial domestic abuser screamed at his ex-girlfriend to “show him some respect” and broke her toe after she rejected him. Alan Hall, 35, deliberately stamped on the feet of his former girlfriend as he shouted at her while visiting a friend’s house in St Helens in August 2023.
The pair had started going out after meeting on Facebook, but Hall, of Walsingham Road, Childwall, “was aggressive and violent on several occasions”, leading to the victim ending the relationship after just six weeks. But Hall refused to accept the relationship was over, and “would follow her around, turn up on the street where she lived and also at her friend’s address; he damaged her phone and damaged the locks on her house”.
He appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on February 8, where he pleaded guilty to stalking and assault causing grievous bodily harm. CCTV taken from a mutual friend’s house in St Helens showed Hall shouting at his former girlfriend: “I want f***ing you and you know it. But you’re messing with my f***ing head”. She replied: “No, I told you to f*** off.”
Hall then sat beside her on the settee and the pair continued to argue until the victim started playing “Let Her Go” by indie folk musician Passenger, and sang along to the music while trying to wave Hall away. Hall then grabbed her hand and screamed at her to show him respect before stamping on both her feet, causing her to yell in pain. He said: “Yeah, I broke your foot. You don’t like it, do you?”
She suffered a broken toe in her right foot and a number of damaged bones in her left foot, and had to wear a protective walker boot as a result. The court heard Hall had seven convictions for 11 offences, “several of which relate to violence against women and ex-partners”. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, and given a restraining order banning him from contacting Ms Brighouse for seven years.
James Rogers
A vile domestic abuser threatened to leave his partner’s dad’s hearse covered with mud during his funeral. James Rogers also threatened to post explicit images of his girlfriend on social media and bombarded her with up to 100 phone calls a day during a campaign of harassment.
He boasted that he would only receive probation for his disgraceful actions, a sentence which he labelled “light work”, but instead found himself spending his birthday behind bars.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that the 24-year-old had been with his victim since 2020. She described their relationship as “violent and abusive”, with his “extremely jealous, paranoid and controlling behaviour” ultimately leaving her “in fear for her life”.
Rogers, formerly of Hurst Park Drive in Huyton, made threats to her family over Instagram, told her he would burn her mum’s house down and said he would falsely report her to the RSPCA for “mistreating” her dog. The defendant – who is also known as James Heckingbottom – called her names including “sl*g, sl*t, dog and dirty little rat”, demanded that she change her clothing to his liking, instructed her not to shave her legs and messaged her on Facebook telling her that he would post sexual images of her online.
After the death of the victim’s dad, Rogers threatened that he would “turn up on his bike and disrupt his funeral”. A tirade of abuse continued and the court while he was in prison he claimed that he was only “going to get 12 months probation” which he labelled “light work”.
Rogers admitted threatening to disclose private sexual images, controlling or coercive behaviour, stalking, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, dangerous driving, driving without a licence and driving without insurance. Appearing via video link to HMP Altcourse wearing a black Nike zip-up top, he was jailed for 31 months.
Allan Crook
A stalker stole an urn containing his ex-girlfriend’s dog’s ashes before being found sitting on a slide outside her house. Allan Crook was already banned from contacting his estranged partner when he subjected her to yet another campaign of harassment.
This also saw him make a series of bank transfers in the sum of a penny each as he desperately attempted to make contact with his victim. He then burst into her home and attacked her, leaving her cowering in a bathroom in terror.
Liverpool Crown Court heard Crook had previously been in a relationship with his victim but was then locked up for nine months in May this year after being convicted of stalking her. The 36-year-old, of Pollitt Crescent in St Helens, was also given a restraining order banning him from contacting her at this time.
However, he began to bombard the complainant with text messages and calls from a withheld number following his release from prison on June 27, having previously been held in custody on remand since February 2024. On August 14, the victim then noticed that an urn containing her deceased dog’s ashes had gone missing from her mantlepiece, after which Crook left her a voicemail stating: “I’ve got the urn in my hands.”
The following day, she looked out of her window to see the defendant sitting on a slide outside her address. He also made a series of 1p transfers into her bank account alongside messages “asking him to contact her” as a “way of getting around” her having blocked him on social media.
Then, at around 8am on August 16, the victim had been letting her dogs out into her back garden when Crook climbed over her gate and ran into her home. She locked herself in a bathroom as a result before her pets “managed to scare him off”.
When she then attempted to flee the property, he grabbed hold of her arms before taking hold of her throat. Her dressing gown was ripped during the incident, while Crook also attempted to take her mobile phone from her and knocked her to the ground.
Crook admitted assault and breaching a restraining order. Appearing via video link to HMP Birmingham, he was jailed for 10 months.
Karl Draper
A “two faced” MMA fighter strangled his pregnant girlfriend and kicked their puppy. Karl Draper subjected his partner to a campaign of vile domestic abuse over the course of more than two years, including physical assaults which left her “terrified she was going to lose her baby”.
He chillingly even told her that she would “end up in the morgue”. Draper admitted engaging in controlling or coercive behaviour and five counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He was jailed in March this year for two years and handed a five-year restraining order.
Liam Cain
Liam Cain was found unanimously guilty of murdering his girlfriend Courtney Boorne by a jury at Liverpool Crown Court after one hour and nine minutes of deliberations. He was locked up for life with a minimum term of 17 years in July last year.
Ms Boorne was heard screaming out of the window of the couple’s 14th storey flat on Quarry Green Heights in Kirkby shortly before police discovered her lifeless body on a bed. She had been strangled to death aged 20.
Liverpool Crown Court previously heard that Ms Boorne had phoned her mum Cheryl at around 3.30pm on December 23, 2022. During this call, she told her mum “if she didn’t hear from her within an hour to call the police, because something was going on”.
Around an hour later, a neighbour rang 999 reporting that she could see a woman in an apartment opposite “screaming and climbing onto the window ledge”. She was also heard saying “please”.
Another witness also called the police to “report a female shouting out of the window, screaming, shouting ‘call the police, he’s choking me’.” Officers forced entry into the flat and discovered Ms Boorne unconscious on a bed in the bedroom with “visible marks to her neck”.
She was rushed to Aintree Hospital, but was pronounced dead at 7.02pm. A post-mortem investigation later found that she had suffered a cardiac arrest “because of the asphyxia, the strangulation, the smothering of her by this defendant”.
Cain was arrested after being found “crouched down, leaning on an armchair in the living room” with “scratch marks” on his head and face. The 19-year-old, from Anfield, had sent a text to his dad saying: “I love you the world, everyone. I’m so sorry. Tell everyone.”
During his trial, Cain callously attempted to blame his victim for the vicious assault. He claimed that he had acted in self-defence after Ms Boorne had attacked him, first hitting him in the head with a plant pot before setting about him with a brush and a knife. However his account presented glaring inconsistencies.
Daniel Little
Rosie Frankish, from Warrington, feared for her life after Daniel Little, 33, of Henshall Avenue, Warrington forced his way into her home. He launched a sickening attack on the 26-year-old, before dragging her into a taxi, wearing pyjamas and covered her in dog faeces and urine.
The mum-of-two suffered horrific injuries, including a black eye, reduced hearing in her left ear, a 10cm bruise over her shoulder to elbow, a 5cm bruise over her chest, and swelling to her head and scalp.
Rosie managed to escape her abuser when she told a taxi driver about her ordeal. He dropped her off at a police station and Rosie was able to report Little to the police. Officers arrested Little shortly after.
Little was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court in April last year after admitting assault occasioning actual bodily harm and false imprisonment. He was jailed for three years and seven months, of which he will serve half of before being released on licence.
Rosie said she wanted to share her story as she wants “every woman out there to see his face and know what he is capable of.”
Anthony Fox
Anthony Fox subjected his partner to a terrifying ordeal during a six-month campaign of abuse. He also throttled her with clothing, destroyed 10 mobile phones belonging to her and left her fleeing a hotel room while half dressed.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that the 37-year-old, formerly of Delamere Avenue in Widnes, and his former partner entered a relationship in September 2021. She moved out of her flat in order to live with Fox at his then home on Warrington Road, but “domestic incidents would occur every time he drank”.
These included taking her mobile phone and snapping it around 10 separate times, regularly threatening to kill her if she left him, controlling the passwords to her social media accounts, “turning up uninvited” on work nights out and assaulting her on “more than 10 occasions” – including “pursuing her in his car and attempting to run into her”. Her abuser would “apologise and replace her phones when sober”, but “things came to a head” on March 4 2022 – when the “relationship came to a breaking point”.
On that evening, Fox “insisted” on driving the victim to a meal with friends and picking her up afterwards and “constantly” texted her while she was out – leaving around 100 messages in total. He began drinking once they were back home and “became angry”, but went upstairs and fell asleep.
The following morning, the defendant demanded to see her phone and began hurling abuse again. The victim got in her car to go to work, but her car was blocked in by his.
Fox continued shouting at her and ordered her to get out of the car before pulling at the door handle with such force that he eventually ripped it off. His victim was able to drive off and went to a police station to report his months of abuse.
One incident included Fox accusing her of “making eyes” at another man, and once back in their room hurled her into a desk. The victim managed to flee in a state of undress and locked herself in the car.
He responded by smashing the rear passenger window and hitting her to the jaw with the back of his hand. The thug then took hold of an axe he kept by his bed, raised it over her and told her “this was the end”.
Fox also smashed her phone and Apple watch during the terrifying incident before hitting her on the nose with the palm of his hand and going to bed. Fox admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm, battery, criminal damage and controlling and coercive behaviour.
He was jailed for four years and 10 months and handed a restraining order preventing him from contacting the victim for 10 years.
Ricky Coddington
Ricky Coddington, 34, terrorised his former girlfriend for 14 months, threatening her, isolating her from her family and forcing her to quit her job. The fraught relationship finally came to an end in November 2022, when he deliberately crashed his car into hers in a rage after she left the house to go to a football match.
His victim said: “He was like Jekyll and Hyde. He’d love-bomb one minute and then he’d be violent and aggressive the next.”
Coddington, of Heathgate Avenue, Speke, denied controlling and coercive behaviour and common assault, but was found guilty following a trial. He was sentenced to three years in prison at Liverpool Crown Court in November last year and given a restraining order banning him from contacting his ex-girlfriend for 10 years.
Coddington, who was described as “controlling and cowardly”, has four previous convictions for seven offences all relating to former girlfriends. In May 2015 he was convicted of two counts of assault causing actual bodily harm, and in May 2016 he was convicted of criminal damage, actual bodily harm and battery.
Lee Mairs
Lee Mairs, 40, of Clapgate Crescent, Widnes, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court in February and pleaded guilty to six charges related to the campaign of harassment. Mairs subjected his ex-girlfriend to intense harassment for two months after she ended their relationship.
Between April and June 2022, Mairs repeatedly called, texted, and threatened the victim, including calling her over 800 times in a two week period. Towards the end of April, Mairs appeared at the victim’s home late at night and banged on her front door while her and her son were home, but her son began filming him so he left.
The next day, she reported Mairs to the police, and was actually called by the defendant while giving a statement at the station. An officer answered the phone and warned Mairs to stop harassing her, but he continued.
On one occasion he called her over 20 times within two hours and used blocked numbers or changed his phone number in the hope she would answer. Mairs hacked the victim’s social media account, posting offensive messages on it.
Mairs was arrested and released on bail with conditions not to contact the victim, which he breached in days. During the same time period, Mairs contacted the victim’s friend and attempted to coerce her into getting the victim to drop the charges, saying: “Tell her to stop f***ing about.”
He proceeded to send an indecent video of the victim to her friend and threatened to send it to others. The 40-year-old also contacted the victim’s former partner and claimed she had an STI, and created a new Instagram account to send the victim’s sister an intimate video of her.
Mairs was re-arrested and a non-molestation order was implemented by police, but within two weeks he breached that order by sending threats to the victim in an attempt to get her to drop the charges. Following his release on bail, Mairs told her friend that the victim would “have to try harder to stitch me up”.
He also visited her workplace several times throughout the harassment. Mairs was charged with one count of stalking, one count of sending an offensive or indecent message by public communication, three counts of disclosing private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress, and one count of witness intimidation.
He was sentenced to 37 months imprisonment and a lifetime restraining order was implemented barring him from contacting the victim.
Alex Thompson
“Powerfully built” Alex Thompson, 38, viciously punched and kicked his girlfriend, causing life-threatening internal bleeding, in the early hours of March 31, 2023. It was not the first time the dad-of-two had attacked a female partner, as in 2017 he repeatedly punched another girlfriend in the face, and in 2021 he shoved a woman to the ground, causing injuries.
He denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent, but was found guilty following a trial in September last year. Sentencing Thompson, Judge Andrew Menary said: “Prior to the night, you and (the woman) had been in a relationship for 14 months, and like all relationships, it had its ups and downs, with arguments to do with ex-partners and jealousy and insecurity.
“On March 31 you both went to a local pub in Warrington where you both drank alcohol, and went back to your house. Although it had been a pleasant evening to that point, there was back home another argument which resulted in you going to bed alone and (the woman) sleeping on the sofa.
“At around 2am she woke up and, feeling cold, she decided to join you in bed. When she went into the bedroom, and without any warning at all, you then launched yourself at her and began to viciously assault her. In the bedroom and hallway you repeatedly punched and kicked her to the face and body, despite her pleas for you to stop because she feared you were going to kill her. You are a powerfully built man and violence like this was bound to cause serious harm.”
Thompson yanked out a clump of the woman’s hair before punching her again in the abdomen, causing serious internal injuries.
The judge said: “Your behaviour towards her and to the police after the attack was disgraceful. Police bodycam footage showed someone who was determined to fight and show violence to anyone who seemed to disagree with him.”
He handed down a 11-year extended sentence to protect the public and “any potential future partner” of Thompson. Extended sentences are only imposed when a court has found an offender is dangerous, meaning an extended licence period is required to protect the public from risk of serious harm.
This means Thompson, of Payne Close, Great Sankey, Warrington, will serve a custodial term of seven years, with a further four years on licence, when he will be under strict supervision.
The judge said: “The most serious aggravating factor is your previous convictions for domestic violence. 22 offences, many of these motoring offences, but more recently for disorderly behaviour, for assaulting a police officer, and most importantly two offences of battery in 2017 and 2021 against former partners.”
Scott Connolly
Scott Connolly was jailed for 16 months and given a seven year restraining order after subjecting his ex-girlfriend of eight years to a savage beating after she put their kids to bed. It would be the 38-year-old’s third such conviction.
Connolly’s first conviction for assault occasioning actual bodily harm came in 2006, when he received a community order for smashing a glass and grabbing an ex-partner by the throat following weeks of threatening phone calls. His second came in 2011, when he was locked up for 18 months after headbutting and repeatedly punching another girlfriend in the face.
Liverpool Crown Court heard in September last year, Connolly, of Mardale Road, Huyton had been in a relationship with another woman and had two children with her. But she began a new relationship which “seemed to anger” Connolly.
He went on to send her a string of abusive messages, saying: “I’m f***ing satan. That c*** on his Facebook, in a relationship. “Is he, yeah? The nonce, when I get hold of him he’ll be in a wheelchair.”
Then the victim had been for a day out with her partner before returning home at around 6.30pm. Her dad, who had been looking after the children, then dropped them home.
She brought her washing in off a line in the garden, leaving her back door unlocked, before putting the children to bed at 7.30pm. The complainant came back downstairs around 15 minutes later to find Connolly standing in her kitchen.
He quickly “became abusive” towards her and grabbed her by her throat, “lifting her off the floor and dragging her around”. The thug punched her several times then pushed her to ground, repeatedly kicking her while saying: “You’re not going to call the police, are you?”
Connolly only halted his horrific assault when a takeaway delivery driver arrived with a pizza he had ordered for himself. The thug then returned to the kitchen, where his victim was still curled up in a ball on the floor, and began kicking her again while repeating: “You’re not going to call the police, are you?”
He only stopped again when he heard police sirens outside and left via the back door. The defendant later voluntarily attended Huyton Police Station and told detectives under interview that her injuries “must have occurred as a result of her having rough sex with her partner”.
Connolly admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm and harassment. He was jailed for 16 months and handed a seven-year restraining order.
