‘Violent bully’ who broke Trudi Burgess’s neck jailed for 16 years

Robert Easom has been sentenced to 16 years in prison after a jury found he severed the spinal cord of trudi burgess, leaving her paralysed. The assault was described as the horrific climax of an eight-year pattern of coercive, controlling behaviour.

Conviction and sentence at Preston

Easom, 57, was found guilty after a trial in November when a jury at Preston Crown Court deliberated for 27 minutes. He was convicted of wounding with intent; earlier he had denied a charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent but had admitted causing the injury while denying he intended to cause serious harm. At sentencing Judge Robert Altham told Easom that no sentence could equal the harm caused and jailed him for 16 years, followed by a four-year extended licence period. Easom was also sentenced for two charges of actual bodily harm and for coercive and controlling behaviour.

Relentless coercive and controlling behaviour

Lancashire Police described a relentless eight-year campaign in which Easom subjected his former partner to coercive and controlling behaviour, verbal abuse and physical assaults. He had previously admitted engaging in coercive and controlling behaviour between July 2017 and February 2025 and admitted two offences of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Prosecuting counsel Sarah Magill said the pattern was one in which one minute Burgess would feel loved and the next he would hurt, humiliate and make her feel small.

Trudi Burgess injury and care

trudi burgess, 57, of Chorley, Lancashire, is a schoolteacher and former singer. She suffered a complete spinal cord injury and is tetraplegic. She will never walk again, requires continuous and specialist care, is in constant pain, cannot cough without help, has no use of her hands and has no control over her bladder and bowel functions. She remains in a spinal injuries rehabilitation unit but attended the sentencing hearing in person to give a victim impact statement. In a further statement read by her brother Charlie outside court she said she believed the sentence reflected the seriousness and lasting impact of the abuse.

Violent episodes and documented abuse

Throughout the relationship Burgess documented the abuse in the notes section of her phone. Examples listed included being forced to clean up spilled food, being pushed against furniture, shouted at, driven dangerously to be frightened and head-butted. She said she was too ashamed to tell her family. In about 2018 during a trip to York, Easom "switched" into a rage, dragged her around a bathroom and threatened her, quoting from the film Rambo: "Don't push or I'll give you a war. " In 2019 he violently grabbed a glass of wine and dragged her upstairs by the head, banging it against each step. In 2021, again in York, he placed a sheet over her head and strangled her; the next day he dismissed that attack as an attempt to "teach her a lesson. " Burgess said she heard her neck crack in the assault.

Emergency call and police assessment

On 17 February 2025, following the assault, Easom called 999 and said Burgess had "fallen out of bed" and had "landed in a bad way with her neck. " Lancashire Police said the attack was the horrific climax of the relationship. Easom is of Chipping near Preston and worked as a landscape gardener; Burgess is from Chorley. The court heard that when Burgess tried to leave the relationship Easom flew into an uncontrollable rage, having previously belittled her and told her she was "useless" and could not cope without him.

In her victim impact remarks Burgess said her life had been destroyed and that she has been emotionally shattered, suffering bouts of depression, daily anxiety, symptoms of PTSD, flashbacks and nightmares that wake her. "I feel trapped and powerless. Everything that once gave me joy, now feels out of reach. My future has been rewritten and not by choice, " she said.

The sentence follows the jury verdict and a court record of repeated abusive incidents that escalated to the severe injury that left Burgess paralysed.