Stevenage victim’s warning after woman beater released from prison



A 28-year-old who uses the surname of a notorious gangster family has just been released from prison, with the woman he beat up and tried to suffocate speaking out to warn others of what he is capable of.
Liam Pressley – who uses the Mafia surname of Gambino on his Facebook profile and has the birth surname of Taylor, pleaded guilty on August 29 to causing actual bodily harm and assault by beating his teenage girlfriend the previous summer in Stevenage.
But although he was handed 14 months in jail for the assault offences at Peterborough Crown Court, he had already been in prison since February after breaching a suspended sentence for renting out properties he did not own and – like most inmates – got out on parole halfway through the sentence.
Now his victim, who asked to remain anonymous, says she is terrified he is already at large.
She told the Comet: “It’s not fair that he has done this to me. It’s messed my head up physically and psychologically.
“It’s important other people know what he is like and I would feel a lot safer if he was in prison where you can’t be tracked by him.
“I would have much preferred a much longer sentence. I’m so scared he is going to come out and find me.
“He might come across as a lovely guy, but everyone needs to know what he can do.”
Evidence presented at court by the CPS showed in July or August 2016, Pressley was in a pub and discovered that his girlfriend had told a friend that she thought he was lying about having cancer. The couple argued over the phone about this.
Then later when Pressley got to the victim’s address, the argument continued and he pinned her by her arms and chest on the floor saying he was restraining her before placing his right hand around the her throat and squeezing hard. He then placed a pillow over her face so hard that she could not breathe.
There was so much screaming and shouting during this incident in Stevenage that one of the neighbours made a noise complaint to the council.
Then, on February 4 this year, the victim returned home having stayed away from her address for the weekend as she was scared Pressley would be there.
He came to the door and the victim told him to leave, but it developed into a shouting match and he grabbed hold of the back of her left shoulder and threw her to the floor outside. He was also charged with controlling behaviour towards a family, but this charge was left to lie on his file.
Previously in June 2016, Pressley was convicted of two counts of fraud by false representation after he offered property to rent even though he did not own it. For this he was given 40 weeks in jail suspended for two years.
He was handed 11 months in jail for the ABH charge, three months for the assault by beating and two months for breaching the suspended sentence relating to the rental fraud.
Pressley – whose address was given in court as Ickburgh Road in Clapton, London – is now under a restraining order not to contact the victim directly or indirectly, not to go to her address or street and another order not to visit Letchworth.