Drug dealing boyfriend sent to jail after campaign of abuse including knife threats
A drug-dealing abusive boyfriend who held a knife to his partner’s throat has been jailed for four years.
Ellis Neal, aged 20, got into a “toxic” relationship, carrying out a campaign of physical and emotional abuse over several months.
He was at Shrewsbury Crown Court to be sentenced for domestic abuse and drugs offences after £16,000 worth of Class A drugs were found hidden at his father’s house in Telford.
The court heard that Neal and the woman got together in March last year. One time, after a friend told the woman she could do better than Neal, he lost his temper, calling his partner names.
In a later argument he became aggressive and told her to “**** off”, before holding her up by the throat. He grabbed a knife and pointed it towards her. She told Neal she was not scared of him, prompting him to throw a chair, hold the knife to her throat and tell her he should kill her.
In a victim impact statement, Neal’s partner said she had been left “emotionally drained” by the relationship.
Regarding the drugs raid, police attended his father’s house in Southfield, Sutton Hill, on December 3, 2020.
They found a tin concealed in the ceiling, containing 260.5g of crack cocaine and 43.1g of heroin. In total, the drugs were worth up to £16,240.
Neal, of Southfield, Sutton Hill, Telford, pleaded guilty to controlling and coercive behaviour in an intimate relationship, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, possession with intent to supply crack cocaine and possession with intent to supply heroin.
Rob Edwards, mitigating, said Neal got into the drug world out of “naivety and immaturity”.
As well as the jail sentence, Judge Anthony Lowe imposed a five-year restraining order.
