Abusive Student jailed for Beating and Controlling Girlfriend

Auzair Hussain who studied at Cardiff Metropolitan University has been jailed for three years after “sadistic”, controlling and physically abusive treatment of his girlfriend, a French national.

Hussain, known as “Ozzie” from Birmingham, was sentenced at Newport Crown Court on Friday, June 22, 2018.

The abusive relationship with his girlfriend took place while he studied Psychology at Cardiff.

The extent of control even went to him making her massage his hands after he beat her up on one occasion, claiming it affected his ability to weight train and bench press.

During his relationship with the woman between January and March 2017, Hussain, aged 24, reduced his girlfriend to “a shadow of herself” during a “cynical campaign” of violent abuse.

On a number of occasions, Hussain whipped her with a belt and a coat hanger on her chest and private areas.

Another time, he physically threw her around her room, punching and kicking her after she had looked at a LinkedIn account of a former boyfriend. He then trashed the room.

His girlfriend who was on a year abroad in Wales suffered many incidents of torment and abuse with a control of many aspects of her life.

He told the woman that he would not hit her in the head because “the head is for slapping”.

Hussain told her what she could wear, what makeup she was allowed to wear, when she could have a shower, and even what she ate.

His domination of her life controlled who she was allowed to talk to, hated her laughing, made her be quiet in his presence and forbade her talk in French.

He did not let her contact her family abroad or friends.

The court heard that Hussain first unleashed his violence towards his girlfriend when he saw her smoking a cigarette and did not want to hold his hand in public.

This is when the beating and abuse commenced on his victim.

After an argument which he started, Hussain punched, kicked and forced his girlfriend to strip naked.

Immediately after he went to the gym and when he came back he said beating her resulted in hand injuries. So, he blamed her and told her to massage his hands and comfort his injuries.

Hussain instilled such tremendous fear in the woman to the extent that she even wet herself. She feared for her life.

The prosecutor, Sarah Waters read a statement out in court on behalf of the victim saying she felt completely destroyed as a person due to this abusive and controlling relationship which trapped her.

Adding that Hussain was “extreme” in everything he did and pushed her beyond her limits.

Waters said:

“I think it’s difficult for anyone who has not been in a controlling relationship to understand why I stayed with him but retrospectively I hate myself for being a coward and not running away.

“What should have been one of the best years of my life studying abroad turned into a nightmare.”

In defence of Auzair Hussain, barrister Keri Bartley Monteith said he was suffering from depression and self-harm but stopped taking steroids, which he took during his relationship with the victim.

Monteith said Hussain had now accepted his guilt over his actions and “unreservedly apologise”.

Sentencing Hussain to prison, Judge Daniel Williams said in court:

“She thought the world of you to begin with but your mask soon slipped.”

“Your arrogance and apparent self-love masks deep insecurity and the victim of that deep insecurity of a period of months was your girlfriend.

“You were obsessed with her past and quizzed her on previous partners so you could catch her out and control her.

“I am sure you did whip her with a belt and a hanger and it was in the context of a relationship punctuated by sadistic behaviour.”

“This was a cynical campaign to overbear the will of a charming and promising young woman by humiliating her, insulting her, and controlling her.

“There’s no reason to believe that the remorse you conveyed is genuine. You have a very distrusting, entrenched and warped view to those who are in a relationship with you.

“You changed this vibrant bright young woman into a shadow of herself.”

After pleading guilty to a count of assault occasioning ABH, Hussain was convicted of coercive and controlling behaviour and assault occasioning ABH.