By OLUWAKEMI ABIMBOLA

A UK court has jailed Nigerian-born professional rugby player, Daniel Igbinedion, 26, for beating and strangling his 35-year-old girlfriend, Katy Lyles.

The court was told that Igbinedion dragged his insurance broker girlfriend out of a club and tore off her SmartWatch so she couldn’t dial 999 before threatening her with a blade.

The court also heard how after a night out in Leeds, Igbinedion attacked Lyles at his home in Bingley where he “kept her prisoner” and strangled her with both hands around her neck, leaving her unable to breathe.

The 6ft 2inch player who played recently for Oldham Roughyeds, Dewsbury Rams and Featherstone Rovers met his love interest when he started as a personal trainer at Nuffield Gym in, Shipley, West Yorkshire, which was opposite her workplace, reports UK’s Daily Mail.

Before Tuesday sentencing, the jury in October found Igbinedion guilty of controlling and coercive behaviour and three separate assault charges between May 2018 and March 2020.

Judge Andrew Hatton, of Bradford Crown Court, sentenced him to three years and three months in jail.

While passing his judgement, Hatton said “I have to deal with you for this sustained course of conduct including gross offences of violence against a background of controlling and coercive behaviour.

“This whole catalogue of offending was so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified for it.”

Hatton said Igbinedion had accused the woman of being disrespectful to him and it was clear that he felt himself to be “somewhat different” to everybody else.

Igbinedion is also subject to a five-year restraining order which bans him from contacting Lyles directly or indirectly. (Text, excluding headline, courtesy The PUNCH)

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