A former soldier battered his girlfriend while they were on holiday in Turkey during a ‘last ditch attempt’ to save their relationship.

But when they returned to the UK, despite making it clear to him that the relationship was over, Lee Moore continued to stalk his victim, calling her up to 70 times a day, conveniently ‘appearing’ in the same shops she visited, and sending her distressing emails which made threats to her family.

Burnley Crown Court heard Moore, 42, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder following tours with the army in Iraq and Afghanistan, entered a relationship with his victim, who is from Padiham, in May 2019.

Prosecuting, Carmel Wilde said: “His victim said Moore acted like a gentleman in the first few weeks and they were happy.

“However, she said she felt like the defendant began showing signs of becoming more controlling and jealous, so she requested a Claire’s Law disclosure from the police.

“He persuaded her his previous convictions were false and the relationship continued.

“He had problems with alcohol however and became abusive.

“She said he sought help for his mental health but never stuck with it, and as a result she said she was constantly filled with anxiety and felt like she was walking on eggshells.”

Ms Wilde told the court that in June 2022, the couple went on holiday to Turkey as a “last ditch attempt to salvage things”, but during the holiday he got “more and more drunk”.

Ms Wilde said on one evening, Moore got angry when his victim decided she wanted to go back to the room and go to bed.

She said: “He verbally abused her and then punched her to the face, and called her a slag, a whore, and told her she was ugly.

“He threw everything out of her suitcase and then picked her up and threw her out of the room.”

The court heard that the disturbance caused other guests to come and check on the welfare of the woman.

Photographs were taken of her injuries, and she pretended to try and go to sleep, but, Ms Wilde said, she “believed he was going to kill her, so she tried to be nice to him for the rest of the holiday”.

When they returned to the UK, Moore’s victim told him they were over, but he refused to leave her house.

Ms Wilde told the court that she only managed to lock him out when he left for work one morning.

She said: “Between August and December 2022 he continued to invade her life and embarked upon a stalking campaign, sending her messages, and threatening to harm her family.

“She would receive up to 70 calls a day and if she didn’t answer he would send her threatening messages, and when she blocked his number, she would receive emails from him.”

Ms Wilde said the victim began to make recordings of the threats, but Moore persisted, turning up at her home, and turning up at the same shops as her, until she felt like she couldn’t leave the house, and when she did she felt like she “was constantly looking over her shoulder”.

A complaint was finally made to the police in December 2022, but Moore denied all matters.

His victim told police she had effectively become a shadow of her former self due to his actions and “felt terrorised by his behaviour”.

Moore, previously of Collinge Street, Padiham, but now of Bridgeford Avenue, Liverpool, has five convictions for six offences, including breaching a restraining order, which was handed to him as the result of a harassment conviction between 2009 and 2017.

Mitigating for Moore, Charlotte Phillips said her client accepted “he should have left her alone and that the relationship was over”, and “admits he went about things the wrong way”, using alcohol as a coping mechanism for his mental health problems.

Sentencing, Judge Daniel Prowse, said: “You were arrested and denied all matters and said the contact you had with your victim was incidental. That was plainly a lie.

“You are someone who poses a risk to partners and someone with an obsessive character.

“There’s a degree of remorse there but you did try to apportion blame on to the victim herself.”

Moore pleaded guilty to stalking and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

He was jailed for two years suspended for two years and told to complete 200 hours unpaid work, 20 rehabilitation activity days and was made subject of a 10-year restraining order in respect of his victim.