Preston woman's atttacker used thread and needle to ‘stitch’ her during horrific ordeal

Flavius Gabriel Topoloaga, 30, of no fixed abode, was cleared of three counts of rape following a trial before Preston Crown Court - but was convicted of causing actual bodily harm to a woman in Preston.

He had already admitted another charge of causing her actual bodily harm.

The victim cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Sentencing him, Judge Heather Lloyd described the defendant as a manipulative man.

She added: “ Each assault was sustained.

“You used your feet as a weapon and in Preston you used a belt and possibly a Hoover attachment.

“You deliberately caused more harm necessary.”

During the trial the jury had been told the victim had tried to cut herself in a bid to end her life, and her suffering, during one of the attacks.

But Topoloaga got a needle and thread and stitched up the wound himself to avoid the authorities seeing the injuries he had inflicted on the woman.

Judge Lloyd said she had “rarely seen such appalling injuries” and that he had shown a lack of empathy to the woman when she had cut herself.

She said: “Any caring person would have ensured he called 999.

“Instead you sewed her up in a crude and extremely painful fashion because you didn’t want anyone to see the injuries you inflicted that day.”

The judge jailed Topoloaga for five years and four months.

He is likely to served half before being released on prison licence.