Man jailed for ‘most appalling campaign of abuse’ court had ever seen

Michael Maughan raped his victim on multiple occasions

A "dangerous" man who carried out one of the worst campaigns of abuse a court had ever heard has been jailed for 18 and a half years Michael Maughan raped his victim multiple times and threatened to take her to Epping Forest in Essex and kill her, police said in a statement on Monday. The 27-year-old had his sentence reduced from 24 years following an early guilty plea and other mitigating factors, but must serve at least two thirds of his sentence. And due "to his extremely high risk of high harm offending" Maughan must go to a Parole Board before he reaches the two thirds point, meaning he will not be automatically released. The Met said the victim, aged in her early 20s, suffered a catalogue of abuse from Maughan who would slap and punch her, beat her, throw her to the floor. He would also take her car keys and prevent her from leaving. Maughan admitted charges of controlling and coercive behaviour, multiple counts of rape, sexual assault, causing actual bodily harm and kidnap and false imprisonment. In April 2021, while the pair stayed at hotels in Chiswick and Hammersmith in London, Maughan hit her with a chair and threw cough syrup at her, the Metropolitan Police said, but she was "too terrified of the repercussions if she dared say that she did not consent to sex". She later confined in a friend who reported Maughan to police who immediately tried to find the pair. The victim, the Met said, had been trying to hide from Maughan and was reported missing, with him also trying to find her. While trying to find her, Maughan went to an Edgware beauty salon she frequented and aunched a "tirade of abuse and threats against staff so severe that one long-serving staff member resigned out of sheer fear that he would return". Maughan was arrested on 5 May 2021 at an address in Effingham Road in Haringey. The victim was also found at the address. The Met said she had been "held against her will and was extremely distressed". In her summary before sentencing, HHJ Kaul QC called his offending a "campaign of the most appalling treatment many in this court may have seen." Related links:

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