A sentencing hearing for a “jealous and controlling” Stowmarket man who held a BB gun to the back of his partner’s head while she was in bed has been adjourned to allow him to be assessed by doctors at a mental health unit.
Before Ipswich Crown Court on Friday (June 10) was 32-year-old Myles Stainton-Fitzgerald, of Tavern Street, Stowmarket.
He had denied possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence in September 2020 but was convicted by a jury after a two-day trial in March.
He’d earlier pleaded guilty to controlling and coercive behaviour and damaging property.
On Friday Judge David Pugh adjourned the case until June 15 to allow doctors to arrange a date for Stainton-Fitzgerald to be assessed under the Mental Health Act with a view to him being transferred from prison to hospital for treatment.
During his trial, the jury was told that Stainton-Fitzgerald held the BB gun to the back of his partner’s head and told her: “Tell me who has been messaging you or else.”
When Stainton-Fitzgerald took the gun away he told her it wasn’t loaded but she was so scared for her safety that she ran out of the flat.
“With the way he was acting and threatening her she thought she could have been shot and felt he was totally out of control," said Joanne Eley, prosecuting.
She said that when she told him she was calling the police he allegedly told her: “If you call the police and I went to prison I will break your jaw when I get out.“
Miss Eley told the court that Stainton-Fitzgerald had been in a relationship with the alleged victim for three years and to begin with he had been kind and loving.
However, in 2020 his behaviour changed and he would accuse her of cheating with male colleagues at work and male friends on Facebook and he would make her log into her social media accounts so that he could check who she had been in contact with.
As the relationship deteriorated Stainton-Fitzgerald became physically violent towards the woman.
On the day of the incident with the BB gun, he accused her of having an affair and had kicked her to the lower back while she was in bed and then smashed the laptop against her back
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