A COVENTRY man with a long record of violence towards his former partners was jailed on Valentine’s Day for offences against two more ex-girlfriends.
Anthony McQuillin had been found guilty of charges of burglary and malicious communication, and had admitted causing criminal damage, assault and stalking.
McQuillin (29) of Rubens Close, Whoberley, Coventry, was jailed at Warwick Crown Court for a total of three years and two months for the offences against two former partners.
Prosecutor Charles Crinion said that Chloe Johnson ended her relationship with McQuillin on 18 November 2018, and asked him to leave her home in Hinckley.
At first he refused to go and was abusive towards her, to such an extent that concerned neighbours called the police, but he did eventually leave.
The next day she received around 50 messages from him in which he told her he could access her messages – and to illustrate that he said he would be there when she went to get her hair cut.
McQuillin said he had been into her home, using a key she did not know he had had cut.
When she returned to the house on November 20, she found her i-Pad account details had been taken, and she believed that was how he had gained access to her online accounts.
Worried by his access to her home, Miss Johnson kept away and stayed with a friend – who then began receiving threatening messages from McQuillin.
He threatened that he was going to ruin Miss Johnson’s life, pointing out that he had her account details, and was going to ‘chuck acid in her face,’ as well as making threats towards her friend and his family.
McQuillin also let himself into Miss Johnson’s home again, and taunted her by sending a recording of him smashing the screen of her television.
Mr Crinion said that by August 2019 McQuillin was in a relationship with Fay Griffiths-Canning, which had begun about five months earlier, shortly after he had been released from prison for other matters.
At first he had been attentive, but after about two months he began to behave in a jealous manner.
In July, following an argument, he turned up at her home in Bedworth – and when she would not let him in, he stood on the bonnet of her car and put his foot through the windscreen.
In August they were at her home when they argued, and McQuillin pulled her out of bed and hit her.
He then began going through her phone, contacting any men he found on it and threatening them, before throwing the phone against the wall.
She ended the relationship, after which he bombarded her with up to 80 calls a day, including one telling her to ‘say goodbye to your kids,’ slashed the tyres of her car and scratched abusive comments on the bodywork.
Mr Crinion said McQuillin had 20 previous convictions for 45 offences, including many against other former partners.
They included battery of one ex-girlfriend who he had attacked after getting into her home while she was asleep, battery of another ex in early 2018 and harassment of another later the same year.
And he was subject to a community order for that offence at the time of his offences against Fay Griffiths-Canning.
Tariq Shakoor, defending, conceded that McQuillin had ‘a disturbing antecedent history when it comes to relationships and their break-down.’
But Mr Shakoor added: “He has written a letter in which he shows genuine remorse. He knows what he’s done was very wrong and has had quite serious consequences for these two ladies. He wants to break this cycle.”
Jailing McQuillin, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano told him: “In between these two sets of matters you were sentenced for harassing a third woman and given a community order.
“You have built up an unenviable record of violence over the years, including domestic violence.”
