A woman nearly killed by her police officer boyfriend has said he is still trying to control her from behind bars.
James Riley, 28, was jailed for 16 years on Friday after pleading guilty to attempted murder. A judge told him he had abandoned his partner Elllie Moxham “in an effort to save your own skin”.
Riley, then an officer with Lancashire Police, has been sacked by the force.
Manchester Crown Court heard how Riley left Ellie for dead in a hotel room after attacking her following a concert on November 10, 2022. The Manchester Evening News reports that she had told her new partner that she wanted to be with him and when Riley saw the texts he turned violent – strangling her for two minutes, causing her to suffer a serious brain injury.
Riley first called Ellie’s parents and dialled 999 ten minutes later before fleeing the scene. He was arrested five hours later in West Yorkshire.
CCTV footage released by Greater Manchester Police showed him running on the staircase to get into his Ford Fiesta. He went on to abandon the vehicle in a car park with it “baring signs of a collision” and tried to board a bus, before taking a taxi.
Riley then withdrew £250 in cash, took another taxi and asked to be taken to Bradford. He was dropped off at a petrol station off the M606 and arrived at his parents’ home in West Yorkshire in the early hours of the morning. His mother alerted police and his father locked the door – but Riley then locked himself in the bathroom and climbed out of the window.
He was caught nearby at around 4.09am on November 11, 2022.
After his sentencing, Ellie has told how Riley spent years destroying her self-esteem and criticising her. She said he was still trying to control her from prison.
She told the court: “For years, James destroyed my self-esteem by making degrading comments about my body and looks, criticising me right down to the simplest things like cooking or cleaning so nothing was ever good enough, and constantly seeking to remind me how superior he was than me at everything and that I couldn’t do anything right.
“Whilst these might seem small things, over a prolonged period, they degrade your sense of self-worth, and I became a shell of myself. Learning to trust again is going to be a long and healing process.
(Image: PA)
“It was not just this campaign of undermining and criticism, but James would frequently become extremely angry and aggressive after the smallest of things. If I slightly under or overcooked something, if I cleaned and it wasn’t spotless, if I dropped a drink on the floor by accident, any small thing like this would cause an angry outburst where I would be blamed and my character obliterated.
“And it was always my fault that he had reacted that way. This happened so many times I started to believe this was not only normal, but what a relationship was.
“These outbursts and patterns of blame have not only impacted my relationships with other people today, but with myself. He alienated me from myself, and I think it will take a long time for me to like and respect myself again.”
It was reported that Ellie has no memory of the attack, but Riley told his parents in a call that he had strangled her. She said: “The task of putting into words how the terrible events of that night in November 2022 has impacted my life seems near impossible. The pain James Riley has caused when he put me in that intensive care unit, not just to me, but to my friends and family is nigh on indescribable.
(Image: GMP)
“The very fact that we are only here now, over one year later, speaks volumes to what he has put us all through. Instead of just admitting what he did, showing remorse and allowing us all to move on, he has dragged this out for an entire year, making us all live with this shadow cast over our lives.
“In hindsight there were issues with coercive behaviour throughout the relationship, but the manipulation was so insidious that I don’t think I fully realised how bad of a situation I was in.
“He was also a police officer, so you carry a level of trust that they will not cause you harm. His actions that night have left me distrustful and scared and, instead of just pleading guilty at the start and allowing me to have a fresh start, he has continued to try to inflict further harm…
“What has arguably been the most difficult part of this whole awful episode is the absolute lack of remorse, empathy, or guilt shown from James Riley. From prison, James has continued to exert controlling behaviour, using the house we own together to subject me to financial abuse.
(Image: GMP)
“James and I purchased a house together in 2021. Following the incident, I hoped to put the property up for sale to clear the mortgage as quickly as possible. However, James’ parents, allegedly on his instruction, insisted they wanted to buy me out of the property. At the start, I felt hugely sympathetic for the situation his parents found themselves in and, despite not seeing how they could afford to do this given James was in prison, I allowed them time to explore this. However, after months, it become clear it was never their intention and they were just delaying putting the house on the market.
“In March 2023, they stated they would not be buying me out and that they had removed James’ bank account from the mortgage, council tax and utilities, leaving me to pay them all. To get my life back on track, I had started renting with some of my friends in Lancaster so I could continue working as it would have been hugely traumatic to have continued living in that house we had shared together.
“I made it clear to his parents that, because of James’ actions, I had been forced to find somewhere new to live so I could not afford the mortgage as I had my own rent and living costs and the house needed to be put on the market immediately to stop the arrears building and a possible repossession.
(Image: GMP)
“Consequently, his parents, acting on James’ behalf, refused to sign to put the house on the market unless I paid them a substantial sum of money, for which there was no legal basis to claim. I wholeheartedly believe he was trying to get me into debt as a form of abuse since the house was the last thing he could control.
“His parents, again on his instruction, refused to allow me to put a payment plan in with the mortgage company which would allow me to pay what I could afford monthly until the house could be sold and the arrears paid off. As a result, my credit has been destroyed affecting all future abilities to get loans, rent, buy another property or even get a mobile phone contract.
“On top of the criminal investigation, this was hugely stressful, and just added to the trauma I had suffered as I felt completely helpless. The vindictiveness was only worsened when, in April of this year, his parents, again on his instruction, removed all the furniture from the property.
“I had asked my parents to send his parents an email saying I wanted to keep a mirror which was in the house which my auntie had bought me. On going to the house to get it, I found they had hired a removal van and taken everything. How you could do such a thing considering the situation I will never understand.”
(Image: GMP)
She claimed: “James and his parents have been malicious, depriving me of possessions, taking it all for themselves and refusing to let the house be sold to get me into debt, showing a complete lack of remorse. After everything I had been through, I cannot comprehend how you could behave in such a manner.”
Ms Moxham, a PHD student at Lancaster University, continues to have issues with her memory, sleep and headaches but she hopes that the end of criminal proceedings will help her to move on with her life.
She said: “It is, however, important to me that my statement ends on a hopeful note. I got away from something terrible and I have had so many moments of joy and happiness in the past year, despite everything hanging over me. I have learnt so much about myself and I am much stronger for it. I hope today is real closure for me and a chance to try to properly put all this behind me.”
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