The controlling behaviour exhibited by 43-year-old Kostas Fragoulis, who failed to show up for his trial in 2020, included an event when he gave his spouse a “canine mattress” to sleep on, town’s Rickergate courtroom heard.
He denied wrongdoing.
But after a trial in December, 2020, Fragoulis was convicted of controlling his spouse over a 14-month interval and an assault on his brother-in-law. He couldn’t be sentenced, nonetheless, as a result of he had returned to his native Greece.
Businessman Fragoulis lastly confronted justice after returning to Carlisle and handing himself in to the police, saying that, whereas he continues to disclaim his guilt, he wished the case to be resolved.
“I’m right here to kind this out,” he mentioned.
George Shelley, prosecuting, mentioned that the defendant dedicated the controlling and coercive behaviour offence between January 2019 and March of the next 12 months.
“It involved threats of violence and then an assault by beating on March 16, 2020,” mentioned Mr Shelley, confirming that the behaviour included Fragoulis assaulting the lady on March 14, 2020.
The sufferer of the assault by beating on March 16, 2020, was the defendant’s brother-in-law, whom Fragoulis grabbed by the collar whereas the person was in his home, mentioned Mr Shelley.
The defendant pushed the person out of his home at Burgh by Sands, close to Carlisle. This prompted the person to fall down some steps exterior the property.
The prosecutor additionally referred to behavior which was specified within the cost – when Fragoulis changed his spouse’s mattress with a “dog bed” and the way, on March 17, 2020, he put his spouse’s property exterior within the rain.
Fragoulis, who now lives at Beaumont, close to Carlisle, advised magistrates that the allegations in opposition to him weren’t true. He mentioned he left the UK in December, 2020, to return to Greece as a result of his 85-year-old father was in hospital.
“I couldn’t leave my old parents on their own,” he mentioned.
He mentioned the very first thing he had performed when he arrived again within the UK was go to the police station at hand himself in. “It’s time now to resolve things property,” he mentioned. “My father took more than seven months to come out of hospital.”
Referring to the offences he was convicted of, he mentioned: “It didn’t happen as it sounds. I never abused my wife. It’s a family matter… I have done absolutely nothing wrong.” Nor did he ever give his spouse a canine mattress to sleep in, he mentioned.
Fragoulis mentioned he had run a business in Carlisle for the previous 15 years however this now earned him “minimum wage”, within the area of £600 to £700 monthly.
The courtroom heard that he has no earlier convictions.
After listening to these particulars, magistrates adjourned the case till October 5 so {that a} background report on Fragoulis may be ready by the Probation Service. They granted the defendant conditional bail.
Those situations embody that he should hand in his passport to the police and report back to town’s Durranhill Police HQ between 12pm and 2pm every Wednesday and Saturday.
He can also be barred from having any contact with the sufferer of the coercive behaviour, who has now modified her surname. As the case concluded, the defendant advised magistrates: “I am not going to run away.”
Fragoulis was not legally represented.
