Stacey Booth, 24, says her boyfriend of seven years Alexander Heavens, 24, psychologically abused her and even bit, punched and bruised her.
Heavens was so paranoid he waited until Stacey was asleep before using her thumb to unlock her touchscreen phone's fingerprint recognition and access her texts and emails, she claims.
Stacey, of Blackley in Greater Manchester, alleges that her fiancé punched her so badly that she perforated her eardrum – leaving her without hearing for a YEAR.
She says that because of his paranoia Heavens kept Stacey up through the night quizzing her, even bending back her fingers until she thought they'd break.
She claims that one night he punched her so hard that she woke up on her kitchen floor nearly two hours later with no idea who she was or what was happening.
Stacey alleges that she became so convinced she would end up dead that she started making secret recordings of Heavens' nightly activity and sending them to herself to let her family know what had happened.
Heavens pleaded guilty to engaging in controlling and coercive behaviour in an intimate relationship at Manchester Crown Court, but on Monday a judge deferred sentencing until May.
Images of Stacey's injuries, and her allegations of being attacked by Heavens, did not form a part of his conviction – and today family members when confronted with Stacey's claims said it was "all lies".
They also denied that she suffered a perforated eardrum.
Bravely speaking out about her alleged ordeal, Stacey says she hopes that her terrifying story will inspire others to get out of abusive and controlling relationships.
Stacey claimed: "You think it's going to be your happy ever after story. You get engaged and think you're going to get married but then reality set in and it just got worse and worse and worse.
"I feel like having that ring and being engaged gave him more control over me. I had a voice at the beginning. But the more he did to me the more my voice just went away.
"I used to record him towards the end because I felt like no one would believe me.
"That's what helped me get him into the courtroom. I used to put my phone face down and as he drifted off to sleep I'd put my camera on because I knew he'd start.
"My phone would record the whole night. I would wake up and he would be trying to get on my phone and he would be that drugged up and drunk that he would be recording me sleeping.
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"He would be saying 'put your password in your phone, put it in your phone'.
"He would check through all my social media, all my work friends who I work with. He used to check through everything."
Stacey, who organises funerals, says she ended up fearing her colleagues would end up organising her own.
"The last year, I felt like someone I worked with would [end up] working on my body. It just felt like a matter of time," she added.
"It got to the point where I thought I would go home and no one knew anything about it, anything about me or what I was going through.
"I actually sat there in work and thought 'this could be my family sat at this table, this could be my mum, my dad, my brothers, sat at this table talking about me because of what he's done'.
"Nobody would know my story and I would have no voice. I think that's why I started to record things.
"I felt like one day I wouldn't be here to tell anyone what had happened to me.
"It was really like coming into the workplace that I work in and seeing other people lose people which kept me going because I always felt like there was someone worse off than me.
"I was just grinning and bearing it and trying to get on with it. It was hard.
"I was absolutely terrified. I was numb. At work nothing would affect me because I constantly felt numb throughout it all.
"I felt like it wasn't real. I was so tired, so exhausted and I was just getting through each day – although I don't know how. I was running on nothing. I wasn't eating.
"[Making those recordings] was like a survival instinct. I thought if one day they go on my laptop, they will see what he did to me.
"I was hiding evidence on my laptop in case anything ever came of it and I wasn't here to tell the story."
The alleged abuse intensified when the pair got engaged on Stacey's 21st birthday in 2015.
NO LOVE LOST: 'He accepts he behaved badly'
Prosecutor Rob Smith, addressing Cardiff Crown Court on Monday, said: "He started taking his anger out on her and was paranoid about her actions.
"The first incident in 2016, the defendant became angry because she was spending time with her family rather than him."
He added: “When she was asleep he would grab her finger and use it to unlock her phone as it had her fingerprint ID code. He used this to check her phone messages and go through her contacts.
“He would wake her up and ask who everyone was and keep her up all night.
"Her work became affected and she became sleep deprived. On one occasion she was going to sleep when he asked her a question about something on her phone, and when he didn’t get a reply he punched her in the face. She remembers being pushed to the kitchen floor, stood on and trampled on."
In mitigation, defence lawyer Stuart Duke said: “The defendant accepts he is guilty of controlling behaviour. This was his first long term relationship. He accepts he behaved badly. He was drinking a lot after the breakup, he took it badly, and he was taking cocaine.”
Deferring sentence for six months, Judge Martin Rudland said: “The public needs to be aware that this sort of behaviour won’t be tolerated. This behaviour needs to be properly met with an appropriate sentence.
“I have come to the conclusion it is in the public interest that this sort of behaviour must be acknowledged, but not today. I have no doubt he has suffered with his own demons, and he hasn’t helped himself by the consumption of alcohol and cocaine."
Heavens was banned from contacting Miss Booth under the terms of a restraining order.
She claimed: "I would sit with my knees up against my chin and sit with my arms around against my chin and I was sat on the bed and he would hit me.
"One night he was asking me five questions on his hand: have I ever been disloyal to him, have I ever done this or that. I answered all of them perfectly and because it was his mind that was so out of control he started to go back over the five questions.
"He got to the third, and the next thing I remember was him hitting me right in the face. My ears were ringing and I just remember going funny.
"I remember seeing him move slowly and move in slow motion and I woke up and I was on my kitchen floor.
"I was unconscious for about two hours and he never got any medical help. He never rang me an ambulance."
"He was just so controlling over everything. A simple yes or no would be overridden by him.
"Even my mum said to me not so long ago that I'm finally starting to say yes when I mean yes and no when I mean no.
"The last year I've realised how much he's pulled my family apart. I just look at my mum and think she's aged five years in one year knowing what's happened to me.
"Now I sit and think to myself how could somebody do that to somebody? I didn't deserve to be treated like that.
"I am definitely feeling positive about the future now. Now the dust has settled and there's an outcome, I want to help others.
"I want to start my own safe place just to say to other people there is an escape because you literally cannot see an escape when you're going through it."
A family member of Heavens told The Sun Online: "We are not prepared to give any more comments until May. It is inappropriate to comment at this time due to the ongoing case."
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