Trudi Burgess pleaded with Robert Easom to get off her as she felt her neck snap when he flew into an uncontrollable rage.
The teacher and singer had been drinking tea when her partner, a burly gardener, pinned her on his bed and placed his entire body weight on her neck.
Burgess, 57, was unable to even speak after the attack, which has left her as a tetraplegic following years of violent abuse.
She gave evidence in the trial by video filmed from her intensive care bed in hospital.
Easom, 56, is facing a sentence of up to life in jail after leaving his partner paralysed in all four limbs.
Burgess taught French and Spanish at a secondary school when she met Easom, who was her sister’s gardener, in 2017.
She was grieving the death of her husband, Craig, a musician, from brain cancer the previous year.
Burgess documented “serious physical assaults” by Easom, as well as a cycle of abusive control, in the notes section of her mobile phone.
Robert Easom was described by police as having “a warped sense of entitlement and repulsive views towards women”
LANCASHIRE POLICE
The attacks culminated with Easom flying into an “uncontrollable” rage in February this year, when Burgess said she was leaving him.
“He got hold of my head, and pushed it with both his hands down. It felt like it just folded in my chest,” she said in a video played at Preston crown court, the Daily Mail reported.
“I’ve never felt anything like it. I felt my neck break, and I started to feel that I was going numb. I think I screamed, but … I had no voice, he just kept folding my head in and in and in.
“I kept thinking, ‘He’s gonna stop now’, and, ‘I’m gonna die’.
“He kept doing it, and all the while he was going, ‘Shut the f*** up, f***ing shut up, I’ll shut you up, stop talking, stop talking’. I was trying to say, ‘You’re killing me”, [but] I couldn’t speak’. I thought I was about to die.”
Easom called a 999 operator, saying: “She’s fallen out of bed and just landed in a bad way.” He told police: “I love Trudi more than life itself”, and claimed they had been involved in a “playfight that went wrong”.
Burgess wept as she told the court that she felt her body “going numb with each crack” during the attack
Burgess described “low-level events” that became normalised, in a cycle in which Easom would be verbally or physically abusive, then apologetic and affectionate. Examples included being forced to clean up spilt food, being headbutted or pushed against furniture, and Easom driving dangerously to frighten her.
The violence began seven months into their relationship during a trip to York, when Easom “switched” into a rage, dragged her around a bathroom and, quoting a line from the Hollywood film Rambo, said: “Don’t push or I’ll give you a war.”
When she tried to leave, he begged her to stay and appeared to show remorse. Two years later, Easom dragged her upstairs by the head, banging her against each step. In 2021, during another visit to York, he placed a sheet over her head and tried to strangle her.
• ‘My ex threatened to kill me but only got one year in jail’
Burgess became trapped in what police described as a “cycle of abuse”. Whenever she tried to leave, Easom would belittle her, saying she was “useless” and “couldn’t cope without him”.
She had previously been a singer under the stage name Trudi Hide. She signed a record deal with Sony in 1993, and was featured on BBC Radio 1. Her performances included Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in London.
Easom, from the Lancashire village of Chipping, has three children from a previous relationship, including a son who was paralysed in a car accident.
Easom admitted coercive and controlling behaviour between July 2017 and February this year, alongside actual bodily harm, but denied intending to cause Burgess serious harm.
He refused to give evidence in his defence. On Monday he was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent by a jury after just 27 minutes of deliberation. He is due to be sentenced in February.
A link to a video of Burgess singing at Ronnie Scott’s is included in a fundraising campaign for her ongoing care set up on GoFundMe by her children, Gina and Jackson.
Her children wrote: “The last ten months have been hellish. Mum spent three months in ICU [intensive care unit] on a ventilator, unable to breathe on her own, speak, or move.
“She was later transferred to the specialist spinal injuries unit, where she’s now spent seven months receiving round-the-clock care and working towards whatever independence she can regain.
“She’s expected to be in hospital for close to a year in total, with discharge planned in the coming months.”
Detective Constable Bethanie Kirk, of Lancashire police, said: “Robert Easom is a manipulative and controlling individual with a warped sense of entitlement and repulsive views towards women.
“I want to commend the victim for her incredible bravery in coming forward and trusting Lancashire police to protect her and bring Easom to justice.
“His cowardly and sustained abuse has had a profound and lasting impact on her life and her loved ones. I hope she can now begin rebuilding her life, free from his control.”
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