Boyfriend who was jealous of partner's high-flying career facing jail for domestic abuse
Jonathan Maybury, 38, employed a range of intimidating and controlling behaviours against 33-year-old Stephanie Andrews.
A man who was jealous of his engineer girlfriend’s high-flying career is facing jail for domestic abuse.
Auditor Jonathan Maybury, 38, employed a range of intimidating and controlling behaviours against 33-year-old Stephanie Andrews after they met while working at Jaguar Land Rover’s plant in Halewood, Merseyside.
During their eight-year relationship, Maybury would mockingly call his partner "the f*****g graduate", drained her of money and left her too frightened to tell him about her promotions at work, the court heard.
He also threatened to kill her puppy, had her pet rabbit rehomed and used security cameras to monitor her, the court was told.
At Warrington Magistrates' Court, Maybury, now of Widnes, Cheshire, was found guilty of coercive behaviour after a three-day trial and will be sentenced next month.
The couple had got together in 2014 and moved in together after just five months.
She had attained a first class degree in engineering at the University of Surrey in Guildford in 2012 before joining Vauxhall Motors and then Jaguar Land Rover where she was promoted to advance manufacturing engineer.
Domestic violence against women: the facts
1 in 4 women in England and Wales will experience domestic abuse in her lifetime. (Read more from domestic violence charity Refuge)
The police receive a domestic abuse related call every 30 seconds, but it is estimated this is less than a quarter of all domestic abuse carried out in the UK.
93% of defendants in domestic abuse cases are male; 84% of victims are female but women are three times more likely to be arrested for incidents of abuse.
It is thought 6.9% women experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2022; this equates to an estimated 1.7 million women. Around 95% of people who reach out for support from domestic abuse are women. (Read more from the Office for National Statistics)
Women in households with an income of less than £10,000 were 3.5 times more at risk than those in households with an income of over £20,000. (Read more from domestic violence charity Safe Lives)
Maybury was a government regulated auditor at the same plant.
The abuse began after Miss Andrews had used her grandmother's inheritance to pay for a luxury home for herself and Maybury in the prestigious Hale village near Liverpool.
Miss Andrews told the hearing: "I had to pay for everything, Jonathan would spend the money on what he wanted.
She said: "Although we were fine in the beginning, in 2015 Jonathan became jealous and controlling over me. I wasn’t allowed to go out.
“He would create a scene if I wanted to see friends or family, and ask ‘why would I want to do that.”
“He would also ask where I was going and when I would be coming back. If I answered back he would call me a ‘psycho’ and a ‘lunatic’ and would say there is something wrong with me.
"During these arguments, he would physically block the exits and I was very intimidated to see whether he would go further than that.
“He just made it untenable for me to do basic things and it made me feel like the smallest person in the world. He even insinuated that I was having an affair with his 50-year-old brother.”
At one stage Miss Andrews, who had another job as an app tester, said she offered Maybury £25,000 if he left her property so she could sell the house but he refused.
Her best friend Sarah Knight said: "Before meeting Jonathan, Stephanie was outgoing and social but she started to become withdrawn and not very confident in herself and I realised how suffocating Jonathan was.”
The victim's sister Danielle Maskell added: "He was trying to convince everyone else that she was crazy, angry and mad all the time and the gas lighting would happen every time she visited.”
Miss Andrews' mother Janet said: “He kept belittling her, calling her a 'f***ing graduate'.
In his defence, Maybury said: ''We did argue but it was nothing more than that. I worked shifts and it would be a number of days before we saw each other.
"In the last months of our relationship, me and Stephanie were living separate lives.”
But in finding him guilty, justice of the peace Alan Davies added: “We find that you did use cameras to monitor her, you did intend to kill the dog and you did belittle her.
“This had a serious effect on her which in turn caused serious alarm and distress.”
