A man who subjected a ‘friend with benefits’ to sickening verbal and physical abuse has avoided jail.
Gregory Linvao James Williams, 39, pleaded guilty to two assaults and sending a threatening message at Bolton Magistrates’ Court, following a number of incidents in Bolton on July 17 2021.
Williams met his victim - who is 16 years his junior - at around 7pm that evening and accused her of sleeping with his cousin, the court heard.
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He then squeezed the woman’s neck for around a minute - she was struggling to breathe and was crying.
A passer-by asked what Williams was doing and he replied: “What has it got to do with you?”
He then let go and walked off in a different direction.
They arranged to meet again at Astley Bridge Park because the victim had some alcohol that belonged to Williams but as soon as he arrived he called her a ‘tramp’ and ‘a little wh***’.
Williams then bit the woman’s right ear and it started to bleed.
Later that evening, he sent her messages in which he said that he would ‘stab her’ and ‘beat her up in front of her mum and dad’.
He threatened to ‘take her somewhere no one could find her, keep her there for weeks and get a ransom for her’.
Williams then asked the woman if he could meet her at a nearby Asda so he could borrow her card and withdraw money.
When she met him, he called her a ‘tramp’, a ‘smelly little b****’ and ‘scum on his shoe’.
Williams then bit her lip and ‘backhanded’ her - she eventually managed to run away and get home.
In a victim personal statement, the woman said the incidents have left her ‘terrified to go outside’.
“I keep reliving the experience and cry whenever I think about it,” she said.
“No one has the right to attack me the way Gregory did. It makes me feel sick thinking about what he has done to me.”
Williams, of Dunoon Drive, Astley Bridge, has 12 previous convictions for 17 offences, the court was told.
Defending, Martin Pizzey told the court Williams is in a ‘happy, secure relationship’ and said there have been no domestic violence call outs in relation to his partner.
Mr Pizzey said that Williams has one child and is expecting another with his partner - he also helps care for her three children from a previous relationship.
He added that issues between Williams and the victim arose because she wanted to spend more time with him.
“He doesn’t make any excuses for his behaviour and he knows it was despicable,” Mr Pizzey said.
He continued: “He is embarrassed by the fact that it became intimate because he had another responsibility.”
Williams was sentenced to 16 weeks imprisonment, suspended for two years.
Addressing Williams, chairman of the bench, Joe Bangudu said: “We find your actions wholly, totally unacceptable.
“It was despicable, degrading, and demeaning.
“It is inconceivable that you were intimate with this lady and you treated her the way you have.
“That’s not nice, it’s nasty.
“You’re not going to prison today but if for any reason in the next 24 months you come before us, Mr Williams, make no mistake you will go through that door.”
Williams will have to complete 15 rehabilitation requirement days, attend the ‘Building Better Relationships’ course and do 240 hours of unpaid work.
A restraining order was also imposed on Williams, preventing him from contacting the victim for two years.
He will have to pay a victim surcharge of £128.
Mr Bangudu added: “We have decided against compensation because we want this lady to move on and have nothing whatsoever to do with you.
“You don’t deserve to call her a friend. No one should treat a friend that way.”
