Controlling Ex Gets Suspended Sentence For Treatment Of Older Lover

Michelle Couzins & Liam O'Keeffe

The toyboy lover of an older “morbidly obese” single-mum has received a suspended prison sentence for a campaign of verbal abuse and intimidation that destroyed her self-esteem.

Liam David O’Keeffe, 24, of West Street, Weymouth, Dorset met 43 year-old Michelle Couzins on the internet and the pair set up home in Rose Avenue, Mitcham, south-west London.

He pleaded guilty to engaging in controlling and coercive behaviour and harassing Ms Couzins and received 21 months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months.

O’Keeffe was also made subject to a ten-year restraining order prohibiting contact with his former partner.

The prosecutor told Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court: “She seems to have lost a great deal of self-esteem and stopped looking after herself, was unkempt and unclean and put on a substantial amount of weight.”

O’Keeffe even restricted Ms Couzins to a van parked in their garage. ‘They were locking themselves in there and excluding her son having contact.

“It was all driven by jealousy that she had interest in one of her father’s lodgers and he caused a scene at her work.

“He called her a ‘bitch’ and a ‘whore’ and was demeaning her regularly.”

Ms Couzins recalled one moment in July 2015 when O’Keeffe suddenly pulled his van over near a golf course.

“The defendant thought she was looking at a man and was very aggressive towards her and pinned her against a fence with his hands around her throat.”

The pair had met in October, 2014. “It did not take long, she says, for his extreme jealousy to take over and that caused her mental anguish and pain.

“She was very much under his influence and the result was for her to self-harm, pulling her hair and burning herself with cigarettes.”

Ms Couzins says O’Keeffe lied about his identity, adopting the name Rufio Gonzales and falsely claiming he had no family.

She recalls O’Keeffe being the perfect gentleman in the first three months of their relationship. “He was funny, fun. He seemed really charming, he was so nice, he would say: ‘You are so intelligent, you are so kind’ and we did seem to have a connection then.”

However, as he became more controlling O’Keeffe insisted Ms Couzins take phone calls on loudspeaker so he could eavesdrop, restricted what she could wear and deleted contacts from her Facebook account.

He also took her money and insisted on visiting the care home she worked at, which eventually cost her employment.

She describes herself as “morbidly obese” while dating O’Keeffe and has lost eight stone since their split.