Abuser stalked ex after years of 'mental torture'

A domestic abuser who stalked his ex-partner after subjecting her to years of "mental torture" has been jailed for four and a half years.

Daniel Grainger, 40, made the woman's life a misery with his jealousy and false accusations of her cheating on him exacerbated by his alcohol and cocaine binges, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The woman, who met Grainger when she was 17 and was with him for 15 years, told the court she lived every day in "constant fear" he would kill her, while a judge said it was one of the worst domestic abuse cases he had encountered.

Grainger, from Darlington, initially denied wrongdoing but admitted coercive and controlling behaviour and stalking on the day his trial began.

Grainger was the woman's first proper boyfriend and theirs was her only experience of being in a relationship, Recorder Paul Reid said.

Over the final five years it deteriorated to the point of being "toxic", with Grainger subjecting her to "brutal" and "aggressive" abuse, the judge said.

He cut her off from family and friends, controlled what she wore, monitored her communications and subjected her to repeated degrading treatment, the court heard.

After the relationship ended in 2025, he bombarded her with threatening messages and calls and repeatedly turned up at her home, while her property was "considerably damaged" by "persons unknown", the court heard.

The woman told the court the atmosphere Grainger had created was "unbearable" and no sentence imposed would compare to the "mental torture" he had put her through.

"Every day I live in constant fear he will kill me," the woman said.

She also said her car windows had been smashed and attempts had been made to set her home on fire at the "hands of" Grainger, who she was protected from seeing by screens in the courtroom.

The woman told Grainger: "Today is the last day I stand here as your victim."

She said she was now a survivor of his "horrific abuse" and her home would be a place of "pure love, peace and happiness" with "no angry man".

Grainger's previous convictions included a battery against the same woman from 2011, the court heard.

Reid said: "This is one of the worst cases of its nature I have had the misfortune to have to deal with.

He also said Grainger had "hounded" the woman even after they broke up.

He had shown "no remorse, no shame, no acceptance" of what he had done, the judge said, and instead claimed it was "not my fault" and "anything that happened was down to" the woman.

The judge praised the woman for her "admirable" courage in attending court while "in fear" of Grainger and his family.

The way she read her statement showed the "utter devastation this young woman has been through", Reid said.

A restraining order banning Grainger from contacting his victim was made to last indefinitely.

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