Trudi Burgess left paralysed after ‘Jekyll and Hyde monster’ attack as partner jailed for 16 years
The attack left trudi burgess, 57, paralysed and dependent on continuous specialist care after her partner, Robert Easom, severed her spinal cord when she told him she was leaving. Easom, 57, was jailed for 16 years and will serve a further four-year extended licence period for a string of offences that spanned eight years.
Sentence and courtroom findings
At Preston Crown Court, a jury found Easom guilty of wounding with intent following a trial in November; jurors deliberated for 27 minutes before returning their verdict. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison for wounding with intent, two charges of actual bodily harm and coercive and controlling behaviour, followed by a four-year extended licence period. Judge Robert Altham said: "No sentence I can pass upon you could begin to equal the harm that you have caused" and told Easom that even a lengthy sentence could not restore the life he had denied his victim.
How the assault unfolded
On 17 February 2025, when Ms Burgess told Easom she was leaving, he launched what police described as a "brutal assault" that severed her spinal cord and left her paralysed. Following the attack, Easom called 999 and said she had "fallen out of bed" and had "landed in a bad way with her neck. " In court the prosecution said he had pinned Burgess down and pushed her head into her body until her neck snapped; she later heard her neck crack during the assault.
Trudi Burgess in hospital and life-changing injuries
Trudi Burgess, 57, of Chorley, Lancashire, remains in a spinal injuries rehabilitation unit. The court heard she suffered a complete spinal cord injury and is tetraplegic: she will never walk again, requires continuous care, experiences constant pain, cannot cough without help, has no use of her hands and has no control over her bladder and bowel functions. She attended the sentencing hearing in person and delivered a victim impact statement in which she said her life had been "destroyed" and described symptoms including bouts of depression, daily anxiety, flashbacks and nightmares.
Eight years of abuse chronicled on her phone
Lancashire Police described a "relentless eight-year campaign of coercive and controlling behaviour" by Easom between July 2017 and February 2025. Easom, who is from Chipping near Preston and works as a landscape gardener, had previously admitted engaging in coercive and controlling behaviour over that period and two offences of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Burgess, a schoolteacher and former singer, documented the abuse in the notes section of her mobile phone.
The court heard repeated episodes of verbal and physical violence that became normalised: forcing her to clean up spilled food, pushing her against furniture, shouting, driving dangerously to frighten her and headbutting her. On one early trip to York, about seven months into the relationship, Easom "switched" into a rage, dragged her around a bathroom and threatened her, quoting a line from the film Rambo: "Don't push or I'll give you a war. " One account placed a similar York trip in 2018.
Other incidents detailed in the court papers included a 2019 episode where Easom violently grabbed her glass of wine, shouted and dragged her upstairs by the head, banging it against each step, and a 2021 episode, again in York, in which he placed a sheet over her head and strangled her; the next day he dismissed that attack as him "just trying to teach her a lesson. " When Burgess tried to leave at other points, prosecutors said, Easom begged her to stay and appeared remorseful before repeating the abuse.
Voices from the case
Police described the attack as the "horrific climax" of the relationship. Detective Constable Bethanie Kirk said Easom was a "manipulative, controlling and cowardly individual. " Prosecutors told the court he would berate Burgess, at times calling her "a fucking teacher bitch, " and that the relationship followed a repeated cycle of abuse and apology.
read outside court by her brother Charlie, Ms Burgess said the sentence reflected the seriousness of the harm and sent a message that violence of this kind would be taken seriously.
Easom was convicted of wounding with intent after the trial in November and had previously admitted coercive and controlling behaviour between July 2017 and February 2025 and two offences of actual bodily harm. He will serve 16 years in prison and then remain on licence for four years.
