Bedford man jailed for six years for harassing and assaulting his ex-partners

A 36-year-old year old man has been sentenced to six years behind bars for violently assaulting and harassing two women.

Orville Anderson Burgess of De Parys Avenue was found guilty of two counts of ABH, criminal damage and harassment and was sentenced to six years at Luton Crown Court on Friday (29 April), two of which will be served on licence.

In the early hours of Sunday, 12 September 2021 police received a frantic telephone call from the two women informing that they had both been assaulted by Burgess. Both victims had previously been in a relationship with Burgess and were tearful and extremely panicked. 

The court heard how the day before the incident Burgess was continuously messaging and calling one of the victims asking her to meet him. In one of the messages Burgess told the victim he has “eyes on her everywhere”, leading the victim to suspect that Burgess was watching her. He continued to bombard her with text messages and calls in an attempt to get her to meet him. He threatened that if she didn’t come to his house then he would come to her address where she lived with her children.

In a bid to stop Burgess turning up at her house she agreed to meet him at his flat. Immediately upon entering his flat Burgess grabbed her by the throat and threw her on the floor before continuing to assault her and threaten her.

The victim stated that she genuinely believed that Burgess was going to kill her and she kept thinking about what he would do with her body.

Moments later the second victim was banging on his front door. This victim was also a former partner of his. Burgess grabbed her and shoved her to the ground.

Both women eventually managed to flee to safety where they called police. The second victim told police how Burgess was physically and emotionally abusive throughout their relationship.

In court, Burgess was classed as a “danger to all future partners” and as well as six years in jail was given a restraining order not to contact either of the victims.

Investigating Officer, Detective Constable Joanna Tyrrell, said: “Burgess is an extremely violent and controlling man who has harassed and violently assaulted both victims making them fear for their lives.

“Behaviour like this will not be tolerated in our communities and we will do everything we can to ensure dangerous perpetrators of domestic abuse like Burgess are brought to justice for their vile and life destroying behaviour.

“These women have lived in fear for so long because of his behaviour and actions and I welcome the sentence brought down by the judge today.

“I want to commend both victims for their courage throughout the court proceedings.”