A MAN from Rhyl who treated his former partner in an “appalling, unforgivable way” for more than a year has been jailed.
Maeson Hughes, 25, of Maes Isaf, was sentenced to two years and one month’s imprisonment at Mold Crown Court on Tuesday (November 10).
He had previously admitted controlling or coercive behaviour towards Amy Hayes.
Hughes and Ms Hayes started their relationship in September 2023; a few months later, she experienced an unplanned pregnancy.
When Ms Hayes told Hughes she was pregnant with his child, he “erupted into violence,” prosecutor Ryan Rothwell said, punching and kicking her, and telling her he “didn’t want the child”.
He then took hold of her by the throat, pushed her against a chest of drawers, and threatened to kill her.
From then on, Hughes repeatedly asked Ms Hayes to have an abortion, while police were called to the property where they lived on numerous occasions.
Ms Hayes would take photos of her bruises which Hughes caused her, while he regularly threatened to leave her until she “begged him to stay”.
In the summer of 2024, after Ms Hayes told Hughes he was “scaring her,” he pushed her on to a bed and punched her, while a later incident involved him “ramming his motorbike into her”.
As well as being violent to her, he screamed at her in the street.
A later incident involved him punching her and grabbing her after she heard him talking to another female on the phone at about 4am when she was nine months pregnant.
In the summer of 2025, another argument led to Hughes, while “completely naked,” assaulting her and repeatedly shutting her hand in a door.
Hughes later locked Ms Hayes out of the house in which they lived together, but which her father owned, and would let her back inside after “long periods of her begging”.
When she later discovered he’d been speaking to another woman, Hughes told her to “kill herself” and screamed and shouted at her, before he then called police.
He told police she had “trapped him with her lies,” and claimed he had never assaulted her, but she had assaulted him.
Tearfully reading aloud a statement in court, Ms Hayes said she is not a “victim,” but a “survivor and a mother”.
She added: “Before Maeson, I used to be someone full of life, laughter and trust. I thought the world was mostly kind.
“But what he did to me changed everything. There are pieces of me that I can never get back.
“I was physically and emotionally abused at a time when I should have felt protected and safe. Instead, I lived in fear.
“The abuse did not stop after I gave birth. Instead, it continued during a time when I was already vulnerable, exhausted and trying to recover.
“No-one should ever be made to feel like their life has no value. Each time he hit me, I was left overwhelmed with fear shock, and emotional numbness.”
Addressing Hughes, she said: “The damage you’ve caused isn’t measured in bruises or injuries.
“It’s the silence the followed, the nightmares that return, and the way I flinch at kindness, because I forgot what I felt like to be left without fear.”
Representing Hughes, Gareth Bellis said he had no previous convictions, and has “not been in any trouble” since this offending took place.
Mr Bellis added that Hughes has not breached his bail conditions, is “still a relatively young man,” and has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and emotionally unstable personality disorder.
He said Hughes is a “very different person now than he was when in the relationship with Ms Hayes”.
Sentencing, Judge Simon Mills said Hughes left Ms Hayes “terrified” and treated her in an “appalling, unforgivable way”.
He told Hughes: “You’ve not only caused her very serious harm, but you’ve also thrown away your good character.
“This offence will be forever on your record. It will follow you for many, many years to come.”
A domestic abuse protection order was also made to safeguard Ms Hayes.
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