John Gizzi, 55, was sentenced to four years and 11 months at Mold Crown Court. The judge said there was no offence in the indictment making him directly responsible for the serious injuries Natasha Farah suffered in April.
A man who subjected his partner to a catalogue of violence and verbal abuse has been jailed for four years and 11 months. John Gizzi, 55, from St Asaph, Denbighshire, pleaded guilty to coercive and controlling behaviour towards Natasha Farah, 32, and to the intentional strangulation of her sister. Judge Mills told Mold Crown Court it was “one of the worst” cases of coercive control the court had seen. Gizzi appeared by video link from prison, and shouts of “scumbag” and “rot in hell” came from the public gallery.
How the abuse came to light
The court heard that the abuse emerged after Ms Farah was found at her flat in Rhos on Sea on 7 April, having suffered what was suspected to be a suicide attempt. She was left in what Judge Mills described as an “unresponsive state with serious brain damage”. Gizzi was the person who phoned the emergency services.
Elen Owen, prosecuting, told the court it was not the Crown’s case that Gizzi was responsible for what happened that day. Police investigated after Ms Farah was found and uncovered a pattern of physical and verbal abuse by Gizzi. Judge Mills said there was no offence in the indictment making him directly responsible for the events of 7 April. He said he had “no doubt” that North Wales Police would investigate if circumstances changed or further evidence emerged, but that this was “not a matter for today”.
What the court heard
Ms Owen outlined a long list of attacks and abuse between March 2025 and April 2026. They included:
- an attack at a gym the couple used, when Ms Farah went to ask for some keys. Gizzi threw them at her and hit her in the face, and another man stepped in to protect her;
- a second alleged assault at the same gym, which Ms Farah described to a friend;
- repeatedly following her and attacking her in her car, and leaving countless abusive messages; and
- an incident in September 2025 in which a call to the emergency services recorded Gizzi physically and verbally abusing Ms Farah’s mother, Denise. The police were told, but Denise later withdrew the complaint.
Some of the abuse was captured on public CCTV, and Gizzi was arrested after one incident in January 2025. Police tried to obtain a domestic abuse protection order, but Ms Farah did not co-operate and magistrates declined to make it. Judge Mills said she had asked the magistrates not to proceed and “had a note which appeared to tell her what to say”.
Judge Mills said Ms Farah was often seen with bruises and was once assaulted with a dumbbell. “You would accuse her of sleeping with other men… assaulted her frequently… sometimes in front of other people… you assaulted her in front of her child,” he told Gizzi. He said Gizzi also assaulted her on Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, and that she “would plead with you to desist”. He said Gizzi used “dreadful misogynistic language” that was “part of the process of humiliation” and of “destroying” her self-worth.
Ms Farah’s sister, Samantha, witnessed repeated abuse and was herself attacked by Gizzi at a pub in Colwyn Bay after she challenged him. “You gripped her neck with your hands, she fell to floor… there were marks on her neck,” the judge said. That led to a charge of strangulation, one of three counts to which Gizzi pleaded guilty at a hearing last month.
Messages on his phone
Gizzi also pleaded guilty to refusing to give police the PIN for his phone. Messages on it included a stream of abuse, and messages from Ms Farah saying he had made her feel “worthless” and had “broken” and “crushed” her. Referring to assaults on Boxing Day and Valentine’s Day, she told him: “I don’t have one good memory with you.” He replied with an abusive message. In a message in which she referred to him kicking her leg, he replied: “I couldn’t reach your face.”
For failing to supply the PIN, Gizzi received a concurrent four-month sentence.
Family’s reaction
Ms Farah’s mother, Denise, wore a T-shirt reading “Justice for Natasha” and read a lengthy victim impact statement. She said she wanted to set out the “sheer devastating” impact of Gizzi’s behaviour and the “pain, grief, anger, torture” he had caused. She described her daughter as “the most beautiful, funniest, kindest soul in the world” and told Gizzi he was a “smiling devil monster”.
Some people in the public gallery called out that the sentence was too short until a court usher asked them to be quiet. Judge Mills told Gizzi he was “never going to be forgiven for what people believe you did to her”, and that this would “follow” him through his life. He added, to applause from the gallery, that people who had been afraid of him “were no longer”.
Outside court, friends and family gathered to voice their anger at the sentence. Ms Farah’s mother said she would campaign in her daughter’s name for longer sentences for coercive and controlling behaviour. She described violence against women and girls as an “epidemic”.
