A “controlling” man accused of threatening to torture his girlfriend has been found guilty by a jury.

A trial at Ipswich Crown Court heard that Steven Jay threatened to pull out Estelle Trett’s fingernails and made her give him her hand while he was holding a moving angle grinder. Jay, 28, of Mountbatten Court, Ipswich, denied harassing Miss Trett between March and October last year by putting her in fear of violence but was found guilty by a jury by an 11-1 majority verdict. The case was adjourned for sentence.

Lori Tucker, prosecuting, told the court that Miss Trett had met Jay when he came to her Ipswich home to mend her washing machine. Shortly afterwards she had split up with her partner and she and Jay started a relationship. Miss Trett had subsequently discovered that Jay was married and he had then started being unpleasant to her.

Miss Tucker alleged that Jay had then started controlling almost every aspect of Miss Trett’s life and had brandished a pizza carving knife at her and threatened to carve her up, threatened to pull out her fingernails and pull layers of skin off her fingers.

“He also threatened her with an angle-grinder. He turned it on and made her give him her hand and threatened he would use it on her,” said Miss Tucker.