A DAD beat and imprisoned his ex-wife in her own home, stopped her seeing her friends and took away her phone.

Paulius Anzulevicius of Lower Leys, Evesham was convicted by a jury of controlling and coercive behaviour, false imprisonment and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The 33-year-old Lithuanian carried out the controlling and coercive behaviour between September 29 and October 9, 2017.

The assault and false imprisonment took place at the victim’s home on September 30, 2017.

The case was prosecuted by Earl Pinnock who read out a hand-written victim personal statement by the defendant’s ex-wife, Vilma Poliakaite, which she made on February 13 this year.

In the statement said she had suffered sleepless nights as a result of her ex-husband’s behaviour which had left her feeling tired and affected her mood.

She said: “I worry Paulius will come back so I lock the doors of the house and I have moments where I have locked them and end up checking them again. I worry he will continue his behaviour after the court case.

“I am very worried that after the case he will follow me or put me under psychological pressure or try to hurt me again.”

Satwinder Bains, defending, said her client was more than willing to comply with the conditions of a suspended sentence order if that was what the judge decided to impose.

Ms Bains said: “This is a young man who has been brought up in a different country with a different culture to this country.”

She argued that courses would help him make him ‘a better person’ and ‘a better partner, going into the future, with somebody else'. Ms Bains described him as a working man who also took care of his parents in Lithuania.

Judge Nicolas Cartwright said: “I’m going to suspend the sentence and the reason for that is because of the attitude of your ex-wife, Vilma. You should thank her for having taken that attitude.”

He said: “It was a sustained assault. The injuries were not very serious but, cumulatively, very unpleasant. As far as culpability is concerned you deliberately targeted your wife when she knew she was vulnerable. She was effectively locked in her own home. Your assaults on her were pre-meditated.”

He said Anzulevicius had removed her telephone, prevented her friends from seeing her, threatened to disclose a photograph which would have been ‘embarrassing for her’, retained the house keys and taken possession of her identification card.

“There was a fear of violence on at least two occasions” said judge Cartwright.

The judge sentenced him to 23 months in prison suspended for two years and ordered him to complete 120 hours unpaid work and 40 rehabilitation activity days.

Judge Cartwright said: “Your behaviour thus far has been to deny you have done anything wrong and to seek to punish your ex-wife financially where you can.”

Judge Cartwright also ordered him to pay her £500 in compensation and made a restraining order for five years which prevents him having contact directly or indirectly with his ex-wife except for the purposes of arranging child contact. The restraining order prevents him from attending her address or workplace.