Domestic abuse saw Oxfordshire teenager cut off girlfriend's hair

Rio Samson’s ex said he knew the act of cutting off her hair would ‘destroy my confidence’.

It came at the end of a three-month long campaign of bullying domestic abuse by the then 18-year-old on his young partner in the summer and early autumn of 2021.

She said in a victim personal statement: “By the end of the relationship I didn’t want to be alive anymore. [I would] rather feel nothing than feel how Rio made me feel.”

Oxford Crown Court heard that Samson had repeatedly kicked and beaten the girl, once slapping her so hard to the face that she thought her hearing had been affected.

He had kicked her out of the annexe in his parents’ house when she was in a state of undress and had smashed her mobile phones.

After kicking her in the backside and legs on another occasion he had asked ‘if it hurt’ and was said to have seemed ‘pleased’ when she said it did.

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Sentencing, Recorder Samantha Presland said: “Your girlfriend at the time was only 17. It has left her deeply traumatised and shaken.

“There is no doubt that your behaviour exhibited some of the worst red flags for narcissistic behaviour one could see.”

She added of the victim: “She is not an object. You have no right to control anybody. The person you have control for is yourself and your own emotions.”

But the judge suspended the two years’ imprisonment for two years, citing the defendant’s youth and the relative delay in the case coming to court.

Samson, now 20, of Aston Upthorpe, near Didcot, pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court in April to controlling and coercive behaviour, criminal damage and causing actual bodily harm.

Prosecuting, Cathy Olliver the relationship came to a head at the start of September 2021, when the victim took what she thought was an overdose of pills that Samson had acquired at Reading Festival.

While she was under the effects of the drug, her boyfriend ‘yanked out’ her nose piercing, then took a lighter and held it to her skin, causing a small burn.

She fell back to sleep but woke, still suffering the effects of the pills, to find Samson cutting her shoulder-length hair. 

The girl later ended up in hospital, having been taken there by ambulance. Her boyfriend was also in the hospital after he took an overdose, the court heard. Ms Olliver said he was ‘shouting at her’ in the ward.

Samson was subsequently sectioned under the Mental Health Act and spent time in a psychiatric hospital.

Mitigating, Jonathan Stone said his client was training to be a bricklayer and, since his release from hospital, had ‘done his best to get his life in order’. He had stopped taking drugs and binge drinking.

As part of the sentence, Recorder Presland imposed a 10 year restraining order banning him from contacting his ex.

Samson was ordered to do 250 hours of unpaid work, up to 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days and pay £1,500 in compensation. 

For 24-hour support and advice if you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse, call the National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247. In an emergency, always call 999.

The Samaritans are available 24-hours a day for support. Their freephone number is 116 123 and further support is available by visiting www.samaritans.org.