A United Kingdom police officer is accused of repeatedly assaulting his pregnant girlfriend, as well as intentionally humiliating her, after she refused to have an abortion.
Currently standing trial in Durham Crown Court, 31-year-old Thomas Gair denies the allegations against him, which include pushing his girlfriend Chloe Bradley, who is also a police officer, down the stairs, among numerous other alleged assaults. Though Gair said he could be “moody, grumpy, awkward, and hard work,” he claimed that he never injured her and that the attacks she described were mere accidents.
“I was in the bedroom and was planning on packing my bags to stay at my mam’s house; it was due to the stress of finding out (she) was pregnant, I was trying to take it all in,” he said in court. “I went to go downstairs and I saw (her) coming up the stairs. I did not push her. She got about halfway towards me and tried to take a step back but her foot missed the stair and she fell. I immediately called an ambulance.”
Yet Bradley paints a drastically different picture, claiming that Gair mocked her, controlled her, and attacked her on numerous occasions. In addition to being shoved down the stairs, Bradley said he also hit her with his car and forced her to eat until she was sick. She said he would also humiliate her, telling her she looked like a “whale,” and isolated her from her friends.
“When I fell pregnant he told me to have an abortion or he was going to leave me. He said we couldn’t afford it and it would ruin our lives,” she said in her video testimony. “He told me I would be a crap mother and I was probably going to lose the baby. I was really ill when I was pregnant, I was backwards and forwards to the hospital, but he offered me no help or support; he wanted me to have a miscarriage. He would poke and jab me in the stomach and he would threaten ‘I will put you down the stairs.'”
Eventually, Bradley said he carried through with his threat and shoved her down the stairs. Ultimately, the baby was delivered safely, despite the alleged abuse. Gair is now charged with controlling and coercive behavior, five assaults, and stalking.
