A woman who used knives to poke her husband and called him “half a man” while exercising “total dominance” over him has been sentenced to prison.
Tuesday marked the beginning of Glenys Downie, 65,’s two-year prison term for the “cruel and evil campaign” of domestic violence against her 38-year-old spouse.
Before her 67-year-old husband got the guts to tell police about Downie’s treatment of him in September 2021, he had been “dominated and abused” throughout their marriage.
A court heard that she forbade him from visiting his friends and relatives, yanked his hair like a “bully from the playground,” and made him feel “sub-human” and “disgusting” because of how clean he kept himself.
A jury at Portsmouth Crown Court found her guilty, sentenced her to two years in prison, and issued an ongoing restraining order.
She had the intention of “humiliating and degrading” him in a relationship of “total dominance,” according to the court who sentenced her.
In a statement read out at the sentence court, Downie’s husband said, “She made me feel as if my existence was nothing and I was sub-human.”
She subjected me to being poked with knives, punched in the face, and having my hair pulled like a child while making me feel disgusted and dirty.
“I was always afraid of her violent rages.”
He spoke of how she would kick and hit him when she got angry and said that he always lived in dread.
He said that although things had been strained in their marriage for some time, they had reached a breaking point in 2019 when he was forbidden from meeting his friends or relatives.
The retiree said that Downie put them through “suffering” and turned it into a “nightmare,” ruining “one of the best occasions” of his daughter’s life when she was about to get married.
During the trial, both daughters gave testimony against her.
During sentence, Judge William Ashworth said to Downie, “You planned to insult and humiliate your spouse.” This is a result of the several times you have disparaged him, calling him “worthless” and “half a man.”
“A lot of your actions had aspects of bullying from the playground, when you provoked him. You provoked him, and when he declined to defend himself, you used it as more proof of his worthlessness.
There was a huge gulf between the two of you since you were the one controlling everything in the relationship. He had no power to make decisions and had no voice in the situation.
The connection turned into one of complete dominance.
Downie’s husband and she were residing in Swanwick, Hampshire, when she started abusing him often in 2020 and 2021.
She allegedly “threatened her husband with a knife” and “taunted him for being afraid of her behavior,” according to a spokeswoman for Hampshire Constabulary.
The spokeswoman said, “The victim in this instance also characterized Downie as a cunning bully and stated he was unwilling to ever go against her requests as this made life easy for him.”
After the complaints were submitted to the police, investigators got to work, and Downie was eventually accused of using coercive and controlling behavior.
She denied committing the crime, and Portsmouth Crown Court held a trial on the matter. After almost three hours of discussion, the jury found her guilty.
Downie “clearly maintained her denial of events,” according to Downie’s attorney Edmund Wild, but expressed regret for appearing in court.
She had “no remorse” or “hope of rehabilitation,” according to Judge Ashworth, who determined that jail was the proper punishment.
He said, “You caused him to lose two years of his life, thus you will spend two years in jail.”
Glenys’ depravity was “overwhelming,” the victim stated, adding that he is “slowly healing” and “won’t get back the two years she took from me.”
But he said, “I no longer live on thin ice every minute of the day.”
After the case, Police Staff Investigator Laura Cummins, who oversaw the investigation, praised Downie’s husband for coming forward and noted that domestic violence is a “very hard crime” to investigate.
Downie ran a “cruel and nasty campaign,” according to Ms. Cummins.
“The victim in this instance is an extraordinarily courageous man who deserves praise for his fortitude, especially in light of all he has gone through.
No one should ever be treated in such a startling way, especially not by a person they love and live with.
Domestic violence is an extremely difficult crime type to investigate since so much of the abuse occurs in secret and because victims are often bullied or dominated into complying with demands. This makes it much harder for people to disclose abuse to the authorities.
“I hope this case’s resolution gives hope to others who are suffering in silence that this abuse may be halted,” the author says.