Man jailed after threatening to disfigure ex-girlfriend with acid and get her raped

A Manchester man who threatened to disfigure his former girlfriend with acid and get her raped has been jailed for his controlling and coercive behaviour.

Mohammed Imtiaz’s targeted campaign of violent, abusive and threatening conduct left the woman and her family fearing for their lives.

Bolton Crown Court heard the 36-year-old man constructed a strict relationship contract and told her what she could wear, who she could meet and where she could go. He also tracked her movements and sent malicious messages.

In 2021, he isolated her from her friends and threatened to steal her grandfather’s ashes as he attempted to intimidate her family. She said his actions left her frightened.

Imtiaz was arrested in January this year and investigators found data which pointed to his coercive behaviour and his threat of disfiguring her.

The woman said she felt “so paranoid” by what he had done to her and her family that she “cannot rest easily.”

She “moved address” because of his actions and felt even now as if her car had a tracker and “he is waiting to get out and see where I am again.”

“Every time I get in from work, I am petrified that he is waiting in the bushes,” she said her statement, adding “I always make sure to lock the door.”

On Thursday, the court sentenced him to three years in jail. The woman and her family are granted indefinite restraining orders to protect them from the offender.

Detective Inspector Mark Astbury appreciated the woman and her family for their “unwavering cooperation” during the investigation.

It was a complex investigation which required the forensic and digital analysis of multiple sets of data ranging from telecommunications to tracking devices.

The woman was “coerced over several years and the ordeal continued for her and her close family members even after the relationship ended, he said.

It caused such distress and trauma to the family that it would “no doubt leave a damaging and haunting impact” on them, the detective inspector said.