‘Jekyll and Hyde partner’ broke girlfriend’s neck when she tried to leave him

A mum was left paralysed after her abusive partner severed her spinal cord when she said she was leaving him.

Trudi Burgess, 57, was pushed so hard by her ex Robert Easom, 56, that she thought she was going to die when she heard a crack in her neck.

Doctors operated on Trudi for 11 hours, but her injuries were so severe that she now requires a wheelchair and adaptations in her home to regain her independence.

Jurors took only 27 minutes to convict Easom of deliberately and intentionally causing her grievous bodily harm this week following a trial.

Police described Easom as a ‘violent and controlling bully’. He will be sentenced in February next year.

Trudi said she tried to leave Easom ‘at least 30 times’ before February 17, but felt she was trapped in a ‘cycle of abuse’.

She described her former partner as ‘very frightening’ and exhibiting different personas.

‘He just had this monster side to him, like a Jekyll and Hyde,’ she told the Daily Mail.

‘He was very, very, very frightening when he was in a rage, but I would always know he’d soon come out of it and then he’d be back to normal. I likened it to The Incredible Hulk.’

Recalling the incident in February that left her paralysed, Trudi said: ‘I was screaming, “Don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me”.

‘I was saying, “I’m coming back tonight. I promise, I love you. There are no problems. It’s all good.

‘I was just trying to calm it [but] I couldn’t calm him down. Then he came and he grabbed me from the bedhead to the foot of the bed, screaming, “Shut up. Shut the f*** up.’

She said she ‘couldn’t feel my body’ after hearing a crack in her neck and believed she was going to die.

Trudi began a relationship with Easom, her sister Sophie’s gardener, in November 2016, shortly after losing her husband, Craig, who died from a brain tumour aged 57.

She and Craig met when they were 17 and regularly gigged in a band together before Trudi, an accomplished singer, secured a record deal at 23.

Trudi said that she was ‘immediately attracted’ to Easom but just seven months into their relationship, the ‘poison’ of abuse began.

In February 2018, during a trip to York, Easom attacked Trudi after waking him up after he fell asleep, before dragging her into the bathroom.

He threatened her and, quoting a line from Rambo, told her: ‘Don’t push or I’ll give you a war’.

A year later, Easom shouted at the mum-of-two and violently grabbed her before dragging her upstairs by the head and banging it on each step.

In 2021, Trudi thought she might die when Easom put a sheet over her head and attempted to strangle her during another trip in York.

Easom’s violence culminated in February when Trudi told him she was leaving him.

Trudi documented the incidents and wrote about her abuse in the notes section of her phone to make sense of what was happening.

Her injuries were so severe she may never be able to walk again.

Her children, Gina, now 28, and Jackson, 27, have set up a GoFundMe to raise money to transform her home into an accessible living space, a specialist wheelchair and ongoing care.

So far, the family have raised £127,817 of their £200,000 target – an amount they hope will help Trudi regain her independence.

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