Record details
A sex offender called a "danger to women" kidnapped his former partner at knifepoint and threatened to "shiv" her and her brother if she tried to escape.
Connor Owen, 30, entered into a relationship with Toni Roberts in April last year and in the early weeks everything seemed prosperous. However, Owen, who has significant mental health issues including schizophrenia, stopped taking his medication in late May despite both the Probation Service and his then partner urging him to continue his dosage.
Liverpool Crown Court heard today, Monday, April 15 that Ms Roberts, who has two children - aged seven and nine - from a previous relationship, decided the pair did not have a future together. However, Arthur Gibson, prosecuting, told the court Owen - a registered sex offender who previously had a relationship with a 14-year-old girl - was not prepared to accept it.
The court heard in early October 2023 he invited her around to his grandparents' home where he lived and grabbed her by the neck and forced a sobbing Ms Roberts into the garden by knifepoint. Ms Roberts only managed to escape the house and back to her own home via taxi when Owen's nan realised something was up.
Owen continued to bombard Ms Roberts with texts and calls which she continued to respond to in a hope of keeping the peace. However, matters came to a head on October 25 last year when Ms Roberts went to the cinema with her two children. She was dropped off at the cinema and then picked up and taken home by her brother Anthony Dennis.
Mr Gibson told the court that the two were outside the front of her house chatting and having a vape when a taxi pulled up. Ms Roberts recalled her brother saying "get back in the taxi lad" before the defendant emerged. She ran back into the house and locked the door while Mr Dennis spoke to the "irate" Owen.
Mr Dennis decided the best way to cool off the defendant was for his sister to speak to him to which she agreed. However, Mr Gibson said "this turned out to be a terrible mistake", with the defendant pulling out a knife, holding it to her back and forcing her to walk down the road away from her house.
Owen told the terrified mum-of-two to "shut up or I will shiv you". He added "by the time the police get here you will be dead". Mr Dennis called the police and followed after the pair in his car. After pulling up alongside the defendant and his sister, Ms Roberts managed to dive into the back seat of the car.
The defendant then ran around towards the open driver's window with the knife, but Mr Dennis managed to pull away, knocking Owen to the ground with his wing mirror. The brother and sister fled back to her house where they locked the door. The defendant ran back to the house and started kicking the front door. Perplexed neighbours came out to see the commotion, including one man who attempted to stop Owen from kicking the door.
He was forced to back off after Owen said "f*** off or stab you". Ms Roberts, Mr Dennis and her terrified children hunkered down inside the house until Owen fled the scene. He was arrested at his grandparents' address at around 9.15pm and told the police he would cooperate.
The knife was recovered and Owen was taken to Belle Vale custody suite where he answered no comment to police questions. Due to his previous sexual offences convictions - where he received a sentence of nine years plus four on extended licence - Owen was returned to prison. However, Mr Gibson said he continued to terrorise his former partner by sending her a letter on November 17 last year while he was behind bars.
In a victim impact statement read to the court by Mr Gibson, Ms Roberts said: "My life and my kids' lives could have been taken away in a blink of an eye...my life will never be the same." She added: "I have been looking over my shoulder in case he has come back to get us.
"I am scared of every Delta taxi that I see. I have had nightmares since, I can't sleep properly, relax or eat a meal. My family could have been three members down. My children say 'is the bad man coming back?' I am scared of the future and know he is capable of the worst."
The court heard Owen has a history of violence, including previous convictions for section 47 assault and assaulting a police officer. He also received a custodial sentence in February 2012 for possession of crack cocaine and heroin with intent to supply. However, he received a significant prison sentence on February 2014 for sexual assault and rape of a teenager. He received a further consecutive sentence while in prison in April 2017 for possession of a mobile phone.
Appearing before the court on November 24 last year, Owen entered guilty pleas to threatening with a weapon in a private place; assault occasioning actual bodily harm; kidnap; and two counts of threatening with an article with blade/point in a public place. In mitigation, Sarah Holt, defending, said: "Nothing I am about to say is intended to justify or diminish his acts.
"He apologises to Ms Roberts, regrets his behaviour and fully recognises how frightening this would have been for her." She added there was minimal physical harm, but accepted the "considerable" emotional and psychological harm that the victim would have experienced.
She added it was her submission that the kidnapping was at the lower end of the kidnapping cases that could be heard at crown court. Ms Holt told the court her client had a "damaged childhood which has impacted his adult life" and his best mitigation was his guilty pleas at the earliest opportunity.
In his sentencing remarks, His Honour Judge David Aubrey KC said in his view the offending must be viewed against a background of an abusive relationship after Ms Roberts made the decision to leave for the welfare of herself and her children. He told Owen that the "perceived rejection simmered in your mind and you were unable to accept the relationship was over".
He arrived at her house due to "jealousy and possessiveness", said Judge Aubrey, and Mr Dennis' attempts to calm the defendant by asking his sister to speak with him was like "a red rag to a bull". He said Ms Roberts' victim impact statement showed she and her children were "traumatised, shaking and crying" by the experience. He added the statement speaks of her "anxiety, stress and alarm" about living in constant fear.
Judge Aubrey told Owen that he recognised he suffered from anxiety, unstable personality disorder and schizophrenia and accepted a doctor's recommendation that he was "labouring under the symptoms of his illnesses". He said if Owen had continued to take his medication "it may be a small part of your culpability would have been reduced". However, he added Owen was "determined not to take his medication", despite medical advice and pleas from Ms Roberts.
The judge said: "You are a possessive and jealous man. In 2014 you were found to be dangerous to women, You remain to be dangerous to women and are a significant risk to members of the public." Owen, of Ermine Crescent, Everton, was sentenced to six years, eight months and an extended licence of four years, four months.
Owen, who wore a grey Berghaus top and sported black hair and beard, also received an indefinite restraining order not to contact Ms Roberts in any way.
