The smiling thug who carried out sickening actions on Tenerife holiday

A man shown grinning in his police mugshot subjected his girlfriend to a year long campaign of abuse over their relationship. Roy Croft, 47, manipulated and controlled her before his behaviour escalated into physical violence during a holiday to Tenerife in May 2024.

In a horrifying assault, Croft seized the woman by her neck before holding her down on a bed, the Liverpool ECHO reports. In a hearing at Liverpool Crown Court on January 22 prosecutor Kenneth Grant told the court: “She was hyperventilating. She had to flee the hotel room, hiding from the defendant in the lobby.”

Following the assault, the couple split up and returned to the UK. But on August 1, 2024 Croft, of Delta Road West in Rock Ferry, showed up at her house bringing flowers as well as sweets for her kids.

“While there, the defendant started to become verbally abusive, accusing the complainant of cheating on him. He refused to leave, stating that he was not going anywhere,” Mr Grant said.

“The complainant became fearful as she had experienced domestic violence from the defendant previously, so she went upstairs with her two daughters into the bedroom.”

Despite her attempts to barricade herself and her children in a safe place, Croft was able to force his way in. There, he grabbed her by the hair and dragged her out of the bedroom and gripped her arms so tight he caused bruising.

The woman shouted for her children to call the police. However, the court heard that they were “so frightened they were not able to locate the complainant’s mobile phone”.

After the children couldn’t find the mobile, their mum instructed them to use the landline. Croft then fled the premise in his car, speeding away.

He returned the next day. Fortunately the woman was not there, having gone to stay at her mum’s house.

Croft then set about trashing the property. He smashed up furniture and electronics and scrawled offensive slurs on the garden wall. The court heard that the estimated total cost of the damage was around £20,000.

After the terrifying ordeal she went to seek help from Birkenhead family court, where Croft was given a non-molestation order that blocked him from having any contact with her. Despite this, on September 5 he approached her at Everlast Gym in Croft Retail Park, Bromborough, and apologised to her.

Mr Grant said: “The complainant reported the incident to the gym staff. She discovered the defendant had visited the gym that day on three previous occasions and at no point did he have the appropriate equipment and he had not used the gym facilities to train personally.”

Croft has six previous convictions for 22 offences. These include assault, harassment, and threats to kill. He pleaded guilty to controlling and coercive behaviour, assault by beating, criminal damage, and breach of a non-molestation order.

Christopher McMaster, defending, said in mitigation that Croft had been experiencing a deterioration in his mental health when he did the £20k worth of damage to his ex-partner’s house. He said: “The most serious and most concerning behaviour happened on August 2 2024, and it was a snowball that built up to this extremely unpleasant incident which was, in essence, when the defendant had a breakdown.”

But Judge Gary Woodhall said: “I accept there are some mental health problems, but the context of the incident involving violence is over a long period of time, and this offending not being a single occasion or even two occasions. Although there’s obviously some underlying problem, that’s got to be tempered by the longevity of his behaviour.”

Ms McMaster said that Croft was a waste management business owner and father to two children, aged four and two. He said: “It seems there are deep seated traumas that go back in his life, that go back to his childhood, and matters he witnessed when he was very young, and then further abandonment issues when his parents left him to his grandparents, and then his grandparents passed away. These events underpinned much of his past offending and much of his offending here.”

Judge Woodhall said: “It’s clear that this was a case in which there was prolonged effect upon your victim, both her and her children.” He said Croft posed “a high risk of domestic violence and a high risk of serious harm, particularly to partners”.

The judge sentenced Croft to 28 months in prison for the controlling and coercive behaviour, assault by beating, criminal damage, with a further two months for breach of a non-molestation order, totalling 30 months behind bars. He also passed a restraining order banning him from contacting his ex-girlfriend.

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