A BULLY who subjected his then-girlfriend to years of abuse and trauma has been hauled back to court.

Lee Ball was jailed for 27 months back in December 2022 for repeatedly abusing, belittling and embarrassing his former partner, even forcing her to take drugs against her own will.

The now-53-year-old, formerly of Barleycastle Lane in Appleton Thorn, was also handed a 10-year restraining order to protect the woman form him in the future.

But this was ‘blatantly’ breached by the defendant, who has been jailed again as a result.

Chester Crown Court heard in 2022 that Ball made several attempts to control the victim, often becoming aggressive and threatening when she did not obey his demands.

He accused her of cheating on him and of flirting with her work colleague and beat her, hitting her until she was covered in bruises, before repeating the assault days later.

The victim was made to pay for things including Ball’s mortgage and his children’s phone bill and in her words, she said: “He financially rinsed me.”

Another traumatic incident saw Ball force his former partner to snort cocaine, with him threatening to ‘destroy her’ and ‘make her life a misery’.

The stress caused by the defendant ‘brought on early menopause’, the court heard.

His barrister said that the defendant was ‘remorseful’, and that he was deemed to pose a ‘low risk of re-offending’.

However, this is exactly what he has done by breaching his restraining order, with Warrington Magistrates’ Court hearing how Ball contacted the victim.

Magistrates remarked that, despite the defendant’s guilty plea, this merited an immediate custodial sentence due to it being a ‘blatant breach’ of a court order.

Ball, now of Warrington Road in Abram, was sentenced to 26 weeks in prison.

Sentencing in December 2022, judge Simon Berkson said: “You did everything to try and control her life.”

“She was scared of you, and she was right to be scared of you.

“There was persistent action over a long period of time.”