A rapist who put his victim in a cage and treated her like a dog in a violent tirade of sexual abuse has been jailed for more than 13 years.
Connor Jay McLachlan, 28, from Port Talbot, Wales, crushed the woman’s self-esteem so much that she was convinced he would be acquitted of all charges against him.
Instead, the 28-year-old was found guilty of 11 charges, including rape and sexual assault, following a trial at Swansea Crown Court.
Every time the woman tried to end her relationship with McLachlan, he bombarded her with messages, showed up at her door, refused to take no for an answer and spread messages about her on social media.
Despite the physical, emotional and sexual violence, his victim, who must remain anonymous for legal reasons, said his constant manipulation and control meant: “It was easier to live with the abuse than to suffer its reaction.” It was easier to just shut up.
Connor Jay McLachlan, 28, (pictured) was sentenced to 13 years and three months in jail for subjecting his victim to a violent tirade of sexual abuse.
After a violent incident, the victim was forced to walk to her property covered in bruises, with her clothes torn and without a phone.
McLachlan isolated his victim from her family and friends, encouraged her to move to an area away from her support systems, and blamed her for the violence he inflicted on her.
He made her believe that it was her fault that he couldn’t control himself, that it was his fault that he hit and raped her, and that she deserved to be made to act like a dog and spit on.
It was only after a traumatic incident where she lost a baby while pregnant and was yelled at by McLachlan that she decided she couldn’t take the abuse anymore.
She managed to isolate him for two weeks, but the day she returned home, he showed up and tried to break in.
The woman said: ‘That’s when I reported him because I thought, ‘He’s going to kill me.'”
McLachlan was arrested in September 2023. In March, he was found guilty of controlling or coercive behavior; intentional strangulation; four counts of property damage; assault occasioning actual bodily harm; send a letter to cause distress; two counts of sexual assault; and rape.
He was found not guilty of two further charges of intentional strangulation and rape. On April 25, he was jailed for 13 years and three months and given a rare lifetime restraining order banning him from contacting his victim. He will serve at least 10 years in prison before he can be released.
Despite the prison sentence, the victim says she still feels terrified for her ex-partner. She said: ‘I don’t sleep because of it, my anxiety is terrible. I keep having flashbacks. I’m (still scared), I know when she says something she means it. Even now that she is in jail she has told people that she will wait until she gets out.”
In addition to physical violence, McLachlan was convicted of controlling or coercive behavior, something his ex-partner began almost immediately.
Every time the woman tried to end her relationship with McLachlan, he bombarded her with messages.
She said: ‘He started controlling me straight away. He would take my phone, reply to my friends’ messages, or text people so we wouldn’t talk. To be honest, I didn’t notice it at first. Other people told me things about him and I ignored him.
‘I think you just learn to live with it. It got worse when I moved here because I was out of everyone’s way, I had no friends and I wasn’t allowed to see anyone.
“It isolated me completely. If I wasn’t with him he would call me non-stop and I would have to answer him. I would have to answer him immediately. Otherwise he would come kicking here and I would have to put the children in bed so they wouldn’t see him.’
The woman claimed that one of the physical attacks even occurred in public.
She recalled: ‘He hit me one night after we had gone out drinking. She dragged me by my hair, she strangled me, I thought she was going to kill me on the street outside my house. He didn’t mind being in public.
The victim continued: ‘It was always that I pushed him. At one point he put a machete in my hair and said he was going to kill me. He just wanted more and more from me.
‘He took my phone and keys and hid them so I couldn’t leave. I tried to get out the window, but he dragged me inside. When we went to bed, that’s when that (rape) happened.’
After a violent incident, she was forced to walk to her property covered in bruises, with her clothes torn and without a phone. She said: ‘It was humiliating. He could have taken me, but he wanted the humiliation of that.
In videos shared with a reporter, McLachlan can be seen ripping the woman’s Ring camera off the wall and breaking it. In his voice notes he can be heard yelling at her aggressively. She can be heard yelling that she has options to “help herself” from the abuse by fulfilling her.
The victim said: ‘He wanted to kill me. They were always the same eyes and now I even have a scar. And he bit my nose and I got a scar there. My whole body was covered, he tore out all my hair.
Recalling the five-day trial at Swansea Crown Court (pictured) in March, the victim said it was “petrifying”.
‘It got to the point where it was every other day or every day. He would put me in the kitchen and make me behave like a dog. He would spit on me, put me in a cage and treat me like a dog.
He said his injuries meant he rarely left the house and sometimes did so only to take his children to school, adding: “I would take the children to school and come straight back and that was my day.” He couldn’t take the kids to school when he was black and blue. He was lying to everyone.’
McLachlan’s threatening messages included tirades such as: “You now have options here to help yourself.” Help me help you because I can’t control myself, as you already know. I’m not going to turn around, nothing is going to stop me. So call me now, while I’m still calm, before I lose my mind.
Recalling the five-day trial at Swansea Crown Court in March, the victim said it was “petrifying”. She said McLachlan was laughing from the dock, prompting the judge to highlight his lack of responsibility and remorse.
The woman added: ‘It traumatized me a lot. I went to the court behind a board because I didn’t want to see his face but I wanted the jury to see how small I was compared to him. “I was afraid to be in the same room with him, I didn’t want to be close to him.”
Speaking of the verdict, she said: “I was quite stunned, because he put so much blame on me that I thought he would get away with it.”
‘It has taken away a lot of my confidence. The amount of doubts and lack of confidence I have. I think if she didn’t come to my house that day she would still be crying in the corner.
‘I just want people to know who and what he is and prevent this from happening to anyone else. And because I also need to get over it and realize that it wasn’t my fault. I also want to help other people.’