A mean and controlling nursing student who received a suspended sentence for abusing her boyfriend had one last taunt for him when she appeared in court to face justice – she showed up with a £400 Marc Jacobs bag she made him buy.
Sarah Rigby, 41, from Winford in Cheshire, put Gareth Jones, 40, through nine months of hell by telling him to eat salad, wear a hat and eat toothpaste because she convinced him he was fat and going bald. and had bad breath.
She made him spend around £40,000 on her during her twisted relationship with him and forced him to go to Harrods during a trip to London.
As he scratched her arm so hard that it bled, he said, “We won’t leave until you buy me something expensive.” And he did: he bought a £400 Marc Jacobs bag which he was carrying on his arm when he appeared at Chester Crown Court earlier this month.
Rigby, who received a 20-month suspended prison sentence, subjected him to months of abuse – preventing him from showering or using the toilet and making him sleep on the floor as a form of punishment.
Police later said it was one of the worst examples of coercive control in a relationship they had ever seen.
Gareth Jones, 40 (pictured), was the subject of a campaign of abuse by his girlfriend Sarah Rigby.
Sarah Rigby pictured outside the court. She would appear with a £400 Marc Jacobs bag which she made him buy at Harrods (pictured)
Jones says Rigby scratched his arm so hard at the department store (pictured) that he bled under his sweater.
Gareth Jones and Sarah Rigby sitting in the Shard on a trip to London. He believes he spent up to £40,000 on her during her toxic relationship.
Jones said his controlling girlfriend took him to Harrods during the trip and demanded he “buy her something expensive”.
He added that if he had stayed longer, his situation would have “ended up much worse,” but he found the courage to call the police.
He said ITV News: ‘We were on a weekend in London, and they basically told me to go to Harrods, and I… they grabbed my arm and scratched me so deeply that I actually started bleeding under my sweater.
“They told me, ‘We’re not leaving this store until you buy me something expensive.'”
“I think it was probably close to £30,000 to £40,000 (what I spent in total).”
Jones added: “I thought probably if I had stayed (in the relationship) longer, things would have ended up a lot worse for me.”
When asked why he stayed in the relationship, he said, “It becomes normal to you.”
Mr Jones met Rigby on the dating site Plenty of Fish, after which she said she began “love bombing” him, making exaggerated gestures of affection.
He later moved into her house, so she demanded he pay rent of £700 even though her father owned the property.
And despite this, he was forced to store his belongings in her garage, and was regularly kicked out and forced to stay with his parents. He was too scared to eat with them, for fear that she would smell food on her breath.
He said the “constant” belittlement and abuse made him feel “nervous, degraded and worthless”, completely destroying his confidence.
She also attacked him regularly, kicking him, biting him, scratching and scratching him. In one incident, she threw a glass chandelier at his face, leaving him with a scar on his nose.
‘While I was with Sarah, my relationship with friends and family became strained. They isolated me from everyone,” she previously said.
“I was extremely nervous about calling my parents as they checked my phone constantly, so I would delete all evidence of this and have to create a code word with my mother, so she would know Sarah was not around and could talk more freely .
“I was constantly monitored and was not allowed to have any personal telephone conversations unless I was in Sarah’s presence.
Jones said she feels that if the perpetrator had been a man, the sentence would have been “completely different.”
Gareth Jones says Sarah Rigby checked his phone regularly and insisted on having access to his passcodes and passwords.
Behind the smiling photos, she made him eat salad, wear a hat, and eat toothpaste because, in her opinion, he was fat, balding, and had bad breath.
‘Sarah also checked my phone regularly and I had to give her my passcode and email account passwords so she could check anything at any time.
‘If I had contacted any friends or family, they monitored me for who I was and I wasn’t allowed to tell them.
“I think I will always be emotionally scarred by the effects of the abuse I have suffered.”
Twisted Rigby even made up claims that Jones attacked her and demanded compensation from her under threat of police action. She wouldn’t even give him the key to the house they shared.
“She made it clear that she was his financial priority and told him he was legally obliged to pay for everything,” prosecutor Frances Willmott said.
‘She accused him of being a nightmare to live with, said he had bad habits and wouldn’t let her use the bathroom in the house; insisting that she go to the bathroom in the library or the pub.
“She only let Mr. Jones shower every few days and didn’t change her clothes, but she also told him he smelled bad.”
Jones lost four stone over the course of the warped relationship and finally contacted police in March 2022 after speaking to a men’s domestic abuse helpline.
Police later urged Rigby to return the victim’s possessions, including her work computer and sentimental items, but she repeatedly denied she had anything to return.
In the interview, she falsely claimed that Jones had been violent, coercive, controlling and manipulative towards her.
In mitigation, defense lawyer Jade Tufail said Rigby had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder due to an undisclosed “trauma” he suffered in his childhood.
But Recorder Judge Eric Lamb told Rigby: “Your conduct has had a substantial detrimental effect on Mr Jones, who even today, when speaking about the impact of the relationship on him, was clearly close to tears and in great distress. when he talked about where he was. The relationship had abandoned him.
“There were multiple methods of control or coercive behavior aimed at humiliating and degrading him.”
Sarah Rigby, 41, (pictured) forced Mr Jones to eat salad, wear a hat and swallow toothpaste and mouthwash in the mistaken belief he was fat, bald and had halitosis.
Rigby’s abuse of Mr. Jones included preventing him from showering or using the bathroom in the house.
Rigby was given a 20-month suspended jail sentence, a 35-day rehabilitation order and a five-year restraining order preventing him from contacting Mr Rigby or his parents.
Following last week’s sentencing, Cheshire Police officer Sophie Ward said: “This is the worst case of controlling and coercive behavior I have ever seen.”
“Many people think that only women can be victims of controlling and coercive behavior, but as this case shows, this is not always the case and help is available.”
Senior Crown prosecutor Nicky Inskip added: “Her treatment of him did not represent the normal ups and downs of a relationship. It was coercive, controlling and criminal.
‘She admitted her guilt in the face of overwhelming evidence and has now been sentenced. We hope this is of some comfort to the victim.’
But Mr. Jones thinks Rigby got off lightly because she is a woman.
“I feel like if it was a man, the outcome would probably be completely different,” she told ITV News.
One in three victims of domestic abuse is a man, according to the latest official statistics.
Charity ManKind says that around a fifth of male victims do not tell anyone that they are victims of abuse, probably due to the stigma attached to being a male victim of coercive behaviour.