A boyfriend who flushed his associate's rabbit down the bathroom is on the run from the UK after being jailed in absentia for waging a marketing campaign of abuse.

Nicholas Cash, 23, "emotionally and physically" abused Olivia Croft, 21, throughout their nine-month relationship in 2020, leaving her feeling "emotionally blunted and numb".

Bournemouth Crown Court heard harrowing testimony from Miss Croft, who mentioned Cash repeatedly shot at her with a BB gun and slashed her face with a bit of damaged glass.

But he's but to serve any time behind bars, regardless of having been sentenced for partaking in controlling and coercive behaviour, two offences of occasioning precise bodily hurt, considered one of administering a poison or noxious substance and a cost of legal harm.

Judges dominated that he be imprisoned for eight years, however he fled the nation for Thailand earlier than his 2022 trial.

The Daily Mail has reported that Cash claimed he was too unwell to attend the trial in October and had a physician's be aware.

The court docket heard he confirmed "absolute cowardice" when, as an alternative of standing earlier than a choose, he fled for the Southeast Asian nation with a brand new associate.

He was finally convicted and sentenced to eight years in jail and should serve the time period ought to he ever return to the UK.

Judge Jonathan Fuller KC convicted him after listening to testimony from Miss Croft, who mentioned that, on one event, she was goaded into taking an overdose, with Cash forcing drugs down her throat.

The care employee mentioned he later referred to as an ambulance and instructed the operator she had tried to take her personal life.

If she instructed the reality, the sufferer added, she mentioned Cash threatened to harm her and her household.

Over time, she turned susceptible and remoted and was continuously monitored till she discovered the braveness to lastly go away.

He responded to the breakup by drowning considered one of her rabbits by flushing it down the john and attempting to color himself as a sufferer throughout his arrest, an account police didn't imagine.

While handing down his sentence, Judge Fuller mentioned: "He sought to cast himself as the victim, not the perpetrator. Nothing could be further from the truth."

Cash additionally acquired a 19-month sentence suspended for 2 years for offences towards one other sufferer in 2021 and will probably be sentenced individually for breaching the sentence and failing to attend his 2022 trial.