Trudi Burgess left tetraplegic and needing constant care after attacker jailed for 16 years

Who feels the impact first: trudi burgess. A schoolteacher and former singer from Chorley now faces life as a tetraplegic after her partner severed her spinal cord when she tried to leave a relationship she says included eight years of coercive control. The immediate human cost is total: she will never walk again, requires continuous help with breathing and personal care, and lives with chronic pain and severe disability.

How this change will shape everyday life for Trudi Burgess

Everything that once mattered to Burgess has been rewritten. She is 57, in a spinal injuries rehabilitation unit, and attended the sentencing hearing in person to give a victim impact account describing emotional shattering, bouts of depression, daily anxiety, symptoms consistent with PTSD, flashbacks and nightmares. She needs help to cough, has no use of her hands and no control over bladder or bowel function. The assault left her with a complete spinal cord injury and tetraplegia; she requires continuous specialist care and will live with the consequences permanently.

What the court found about the assault and the attacker

The attacker, 57-year-old Robert Easom, a landscape gardener of Chipping near Preston, was convicted at Preston Crown Court and sentenced to 16 years in prison with an additional four-year extended licence period. The jury reached a verdict after 27 minutes of deliberation in November. Easom had admitted causing the injury but denied intending to cause serious harm; the jury convicted him of wounding with intent. Court material describes a violent assault in which he pinned Burgess down and pushed her head into her body until her neck snapped; Burgess said she heard the crack.

Pattern of coercion and documented episodes spanning years

The court heard that the assault followed a sustained eight-year pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour, which Burgess had documented in the notes section of her phone. The relationship included repeated verbal abuse, physical assaults and cycles of apology and affection. Examples presented in hearings and statements include forced cleaning of spilled food, being pushed against furniture, head-butting, driving dangerously to intimidate, and being berated and belittled.

• 2018 (York): A trip turned violent when Easom dragged Burgess around a bathroom during a rage and threatened her by referencing a violent movie line.
• 2019: Easom allegedly grabbed wine from Burgess, then dragged her upstairs by the head, banging her against each step.
• 2021 (York): Easom placed a sheet over Burgess’s head and strangled her; the following day he dismissed the episode as an attempt to "teach her a lesson".
• 17 February 2025: Burgess told Easom she was leaving; that day he launched the assault that severed her spinal cord and left her paralysed.

Sentence, legal admissions and courtroom responses

Easom was convicted of wounding with intent and had earlier admitted to engaging in coercive and controlling behaviour between 2017 and 2025, as well as two charges of actual bodily harm. The sentencing judge, Robert Altham, said that no sentence could equal the harm caused, that a life sentence was not called for but that an extended determinate sentence was necessary to protect the public. Easom was jailed for 16 years and will serve a further four years on an extended licence.

Aftermath, family remarks and public detail at arrest

At his arrest, Easom was recorded standing barefoot in a hallway wearing a dressing gown and did not speak. Outside court, Burgess’s brother Charlie read a statement on her behalf saying the sentence reflects the seriousness of the harm and sends an important message that this violence will be taken seriously. Burgess has said her future has been rewritten, that she feels trapped and powerless, and that the person who did this had a "Jekyll and Hyde" personality.

Here's the part that matters: the practical consequences are immediate and total for Burgess—medical dependency, daily pain, and psychological trauma—and the legal outcome carries a lengthy custodial term plus an extended licence period.

• Burgess is in hospital in a spinal injuries rehabilitation unit and needs continuous care.
• Easom, a landscape gardener of Chipping near Preston, was found guilty after 27 minutes of jury deliberation at Preston Crown Court in November.
• Legal findings included a conviction for wounding with intent, earlier admissions covering coercive control from 2017–2025 and two actual bodily harm charges; sentence: 16 years custody plus a four-year extended licence period.
• Incidents in the record include episodes in York (2018, 2021) and a 2019 assault described in court documents.

It’s easy to overlook, but the written record Burgess kept on her phone was central to establishing the long-running pattern she endured. The real question now is how systems that respond to coercive relationships will use outcomes like this to identify and protect people earlier.

Writer’s aside: the scale of physical and psychological harm in this case is stark and will shape Burgess’s needs for the rest of her life; the complete spinal cord injury described in court makes that unambiguous in practical terms.