A jealous and controlling Stowmarket man has been convicted of holding a BB gun to the back of his partner’s head while she was in bed and telling her: “Tell me who has been messaging you or else.”

Before Ipswich Crown Court on Tuesday (March 22) was 32-year-old Myles Stainton-Fitzgerald, of Tavern Street, Stowmarket, who denied possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence in September 2020.

He was convicted by a jury after a two-day trial.

Stainton-Fitzgerald was not in court to hear the verdict as he refused to leave his prison cell.
The court heard he’d earlier pleaded guilty to controlling and coercive behaviour and damaging property.

Judge David Pugh adjourned sentence until May 27 and remanded Stainton-Fitzgerald in custody.

During his trial, the jury was told that the woman took Stainton-Fitzgerald’s comment while he was holding the BB gun to the back of her head as a threat and was “petrified and intimidated”.

When Stainton-Fitzgerald took the gun away he told her it wasn’t loaded but she was so scared for her safety that she ran out of the flat.

“With the way he was acting and threatening her she thought she could have been shot and felt he was totally out of control," said Joanne Eley, prosecuting.

She said that when she told him she was calling the police he allegedly told her: “If you call the police and I went to prison I will break your jaw when I get out.“

Miss Eley told the court that Stainton-Fitzgerald had been in a relationship with the alleged victim for three years and to begin with he had been kind and loving.

However, in 2020 his behaviour changed and he would accuse her of cheating with male colleagues at work and male friends on Facebook and he would make her log into her social media accounts so that he could check who she had been in contact with.

As the relationship deteriorated Stainton-Fitzgerald became physically violent towards the woman.

On the day of the incident with the BB gun, he accused her of having an affair and had kicked her to the lower back while she was in bed and then smashed the laptop against her back.