UPDATE: |’I did not feel safe in the car with him, I needed to get out… it was going at 30mph when I did’ News

Luke Slater has been jailed after he was violent and controlling towards his former partner during their relationship

A woman was forced to leap from a moving car after her abusive boyfriend began to violently berate her while driving. Luke Slater, an ex-soldier with a history of binge-drinking, had been labelled a “misogynist” who “condoned violence towards women”.

His aggressive and controlling behaviour had caused significant issues within their relationship, the court was told.

Prosecutor Nadim Bashir informed Hull Crown Court that Slater’s five-year relationship with the woman initially seemed positive, but he grew paranoid and accused her of flirting with others, reports Hull Live.

During arguments, he sometimes pushed her, the court heard.

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He was violent and controlling and his behaviour included threats to kill her as well as actual violence. While they were staying at a campsite in 2019, they had both been drinking and having a good time when he “switched” and dragged her out of the pub by her arms.

Slater accused her of “trying to get off with” another man and there was an argument outside the pub. “He slapped her around the face,” said Mr Bashir. “She walked off.”

Slater took the woman’s car while she was asleep in a tent. “When she woke up in the morning, the defendant wasn’t there and her car was gone,” said Mr Bashir.

“He had taken her car while she was sleeping and he rang her to say that he was driving home. The defendant’s mother picked her up and brought her home.”

In the summer of 2020, they went to a campsite in North Yorkshire but Slater “suddenly snapped and became angry” with her. She packed their things together but, on the drive home, she feared that he intended to kill them both by driving off the Humber Bridge.

“She was scared about that,” said Mr Bashir. Slater grabbed hold of her hair and banged her head against the driver’s side window while she was driving. She pulled over and moved into the passenger seat.

In April 2023, the woman asked him to leave the house where they had been living. He left and she picked up his belongings and left them outside.

The relationship continued and, on December 8, 2023, they went to some Grimsby bars before heading home, with her in the passenger seat. Slater was “ragging her about” in the car by pulling her by her hair while screaming at her.

She later said: “Luke was driving while pulling and pushing me about. He was screaming and shouting at me. I did not feel safe being in the car with him so decided that I needed to get out.

“I opened the passenger side door to try to get out. The car was still moving at this point at 30mph.” Slater held onto her hair in a bid to keep her in the car.

On Laceby Road, the woman opened the car door while the vehicle was moving and “propelled herself” out of the car and on to the ground. She felt safer doing that than staying in the car with him.

“I needed to get out,” she said.

The woman landed on the pavement. She suffered pain in her legs, arms, foot and face but she was able to stand up straight away. “She began running,” said Mr Bashir. “She ran to the nearest house that she could find with a light on.”

An elderly couple allowed her inside and they alerted the police, who arrived shortly afterwards. They took her straight to the Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital, Grimsby, where x-rays revealed no broken bones.

She suffered bruises and cuts to her face. She left her handbag inside the car when she jumped out. Slater made mainly no comment replies during police interview. He had previous convictions.

Rachel Scott, mitigating, said that the relationship was over. “The defendant doesn’t want to have a relationship with her,” said Miss Scott.

Despite presenting an extremely unfavourable pre-sentence report that described Slater as a “misogynist” and alleged violence towards women, changes have been noted in the man’s attitude.

“He is ashamed of his behaviour and the labels that were put on him,” said Miss Scott. “He knows that this behaviour and violence towards women is something to be ashamed and embarrassed about.

“He knows that this behaviour and violence towards women is something to be ashamed and embarrassed about.

“He has accepted all of the behaviour. He is questioning his own views on women and relationships.”

She added Slater, from Priestgate, Barton-upon-Humber, had previously served in the army and he had used binge drinking as a way to forget his problems but realised that this made things far worse. He had been in custody for three months and so had not seen his one-month-old child.

Slater, 35, confessed to using coercive and controlling behaviour between January 1, 2019 and February 18 last year.

Recorder Ayesha Smart addressed Slater, saying: “Throughout that long relationship, things repeatedly went downhill after an initial good start. You became controlling. You were clearly jealous of her with other men. There wasn’t just the fear of violence on several occasions but actual violence.”

Slater received a prison sentence of two years and two months. This included an additional four weeks for failing to surrender to bail at a previous hearing.