A man who ‘tortured’ his wife during a terrifying psychotic incident where he held a knife to her throat has been locked up.

A judge told the defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, that his behaviour was some of the worst of its kind that he had ever come across.

Judge Jonathan Carroll jailed the man for 32 months after he carried out a series of degrading acts against his wife, including the ‘sniff test’ to check whether she had been cheating on him.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the defendant would lock his wife inside the house when he went out and would monitor her movements through her mobile phone and security cameras.

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Rupert Doswell, prosecuting, said the victim was so terrified that her husband was going to slit her throat that she wet her trousers and was made to sit in her urine before he would allow her to shower.

The court heard how her ordeal only came to an end when their teenage child intervened and courageously spoke their father down and took the knife from him.

The defendant, from the Middlesbrough area, pleaded guilty to coercive and controlling behaviour and threats to kill with a bladed article.

Tabitha Buck, mitigating, said her client had been voluntarily detained in a mental hospital for several days before returning home and carrying out the offence.

She said he has since been diagnosed as suffering from a psychotic episode at the time and is taking medication to treat his delusions and paranoia.

Judge Carroll said: “In my many years of criminal justice this is about one of the worst examples of coercive and controlling behaviour that I have encountered. It was shocking the lengths you would go to.

“You subjected your partner to degradation, abusive control and micro-management.

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“Some of the steps you took went way beyond anything that could be understood to be controlling – they were degrading.

“She became a prisoner inside her own home. You subjected her to utterly reprehensible behaviour.”

The man was also made subject to an indefinite restraining order to protect his victim.

“You subjected her to what can only be described as torture,” the judge added. “The family home had become her prison and torture cell.”