A MUM-OF-THREE suffered emotionally at the hands of her controlling partner who tracked her every move by downloading an app on her phone.

Karen Taylor, from Lymm, met Graham Tomlinson on dating site Match.com in early 2014 before they moved in together and started a family.

The 36-year-old boutique owner, who has two children from a previous relationship, described Tomlinson as 'lovely' as he 'seemed like the perfect gentleman' when they first met but his controlling ways soon became apparent.

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Tomlinson, a director of Walton-based company In-Kontrol Ltd, began dictating parts of Karen's life such as which hairdressers she could attend and downloaded 'tracking' apps onto her mobile phone in a bid to follow her.

She said: "When I got pregnant, I became aware that he was a bit of a control freak. He did all sorts of things. He used foul language all the time and at that time he just chipped away at me.

"When I said that I wanted anti-depressants, he wouldn't let me have them but then told me I was mad and needed to get help.

"All along he would threaten me that if I left him, he would take my child away from me, because he is a wealthy man and in his words, I wasn't."

The 'turning point' for Karen was in October 2016 after losing her granddad and suffering significant injuries from a car crash within one week.

"I was badly hurt but I came home because I had a young child," she said.

"He wouldn't let any of the family come to the house, he left me on my own and I was struggling to walk. I had a broken hand, black eye and cracked ribs.

"On the Saturday night, he had had quite a bit to drink, and bearing in mind I'd just lost my granddad and it would have been my best friend's birthday who I had lost to cancer, and I was upset, and he woke me up in the middle of the night and said 'first thing tomorrow I want you to get your stuff and get out of my house, but don't think you're taking the baby with you'.

"My other children had practically moved out and were living with my parents because they couldn't stand the way he was and I knew that I had to do something.

"I said to my brother, I can't do this anymore. I just can't live like this anymore.

"So my best friend, my brother and my dad hired a van and got me out."

Tomlinson's behaviour came to light when Karen's health visitor alerted police and he was arrested in October 2016 - one of the first arrests of its kind in the area.

The 44-year-old, of Whitefield Road, Stockton Heath, appeared at Warrington Crown Court last Thursday, July 12, charged with controlling or coercive behaviour in an intimate or family relationship.

Recorder Neville Biddle handed Tomlinson an eight-month suspended sentence.