A VIOLENT man who strangled his girlfriend and burnt her with a cigarette has been jailed.

Thomas Fallon, 30, went on to assault another woman who had been in a relationship with him, said Megan Cox, prosecuting.

York Crown Court heard he had flouted a court order that he go on a course on how to behave within a relationship and was subject to a two-year suspended prison sentence for breaching a non-molestation order.

The first woman in a personal statement said: “I don’t believe I will ever be the same I was before Thomas Fallon began to abuse me.”

She said the cigarette burn has left her permanently scarred, she suffers from flashbacks, wakes in the night covered in sweat and is on medication for depression. She has been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, and until he was locked up on remand, was so frightened of him, she barely left her home.

Judge Deborah Sherwin told Fallon about the domestic violence rehabilitation course: “It is of some concern you didn’t attend a single one of those appointments.”

Fallon, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm and strangulation to the first woman in York, assaulting the second woman in Blackpool and possessing cannabis.

He was made to serve all of the two years previously suspended, plus 22 months for the attacks on the two women, making a total of three years and 10 months.

He was also banned from contacting either of the women for 10 years under restraining orders.

Ms Cox said on June 8, 2022, Fallon stayed at the woman's house against her wishes.  He accused her of cheating on him before starting two and a half hours of violence.

He pulled her hair and threw her away from him, causing her to hit a cabinet. She curled up in a ball and he kicked her in the back before strangling her until she couldn’t breathe.

He blocked her attempts to leave the room and pressed a lit cigarette onto her head, and she felt a “burning sensation”.

On June 25, 2023, he hit the second woman across the face in the street at 4am, grabbed her hair and put her to the ground.

He had followed her earlier in the night and she had twice left pubs to avoid him.

Defence barrister Dan Penman read out a letter from Fallon to the judge in which he said he was ”deeply sorry” for his actions and had applied in prison to go on an anger management course.

Mr Penman said Fallon had lost three people very close to him in 2021 and his grief may have led him to behave in the way he had. He also had mental and physical health problems. But he wanted to improve himself.

  • The York-based charity Independent Domestic Abuse Service (IDAS) helps anyone suffering from or affected by domestic abuse of any kind including physical, emotional, psychological or sexual. It can be contacted via phone on 0808 2000 247 or 03000 110 110, email on info@idas.org.uk and its website is www.idas.org.uk