Sonny Parker beat his new wife and threatened to throw her off a balcony after accusing his new bride of cheating, having refused to let her take any wedding photos with his best man
A “jealous and obsessive” groom who refused to let his new wife have photos taken with the best man at their wedding has been jailed after viciously attacking her on their honeymoon.
Sonny Parker, 39, became furious after their photographer suggested the bride should have a photo with the best man immediately after the service. A court was told raging Parker then started arguing with his new wife and subsequently left the big day early.
However they patched things up over the following days before jetting off to Rhodes, Greece, on their honeymoon. But Leeds Crown Court heard the calm didn’t last for long with Parker accusing his new bride of cheating on him. It comes after a man brutally kills a woman on first date and leave her body parts around town.
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He then brutally beat her and threatened to throw her off the balcony at the hotel they were staying in. Parker then set out on a campaign of harassment, bombarding the woman with emails and calls when she ended the relationship.
Parker, of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, has now been jailed for 27 months after admitting assault causing actual bodily harm and harassment without violence. On Tuesday, he was also given an indefinite-length restraining order and told to stay away from the victim’s home in Belle Isle, Leeds.
Sentencing, Judge Mushtaq Khokhar told Parker the attack on his new wife stemmed from “jealousy, obsessiveness and mistrust”. He also said: “It was not just one punch or a slap, it was repetitive violence against her. People need to know they can’t use violence against their partners like you did.”
The court heard the couple started their relationship in 2023 and moved in together in February 2024. They married on August 30, 2024, but the relationship was already strained because Parker was expecting a child with another woman, which his bride-to-be was aware of.
Prosecutor Oishee Dey said Parker was infuriated when their wedding photographer suggested photos of his bride with the best man and then left the venue. They then flew to Rhodes on their honeymoon when his new wife began talking about her friend and her husband, with Parker accusing her of cheating with him.
The court heard he stormed off the balcony into their room and she followed. He then pinned her down on the bed and began punching her legs. Parker then punched her to the face and put his hands around her throat. Ms Dey said Parker told her if she carried on screaming he would throw her from the balcony.
He continued punching her to the face and slammed her into a wall despite her tears. Ms Dey said there was blood “everywhere” before he stopped and told the woman “Look at what you’ve done now”. The court heard the woman was left with a large cut to her head and said she wanted to go home.
Following the attack she asked the hotel workers for a separate room but they insisted she go to hospital where the laceration to her head was stitched. The woman later rang a friend in the UK and they contacted the police and then told Parker she no longer wanted to be with him.
Parker returned to the UK on September 7 where he was met by police at Manchester Airport. He was later released on bail and ordered not to contact the woman, but almost immediately he offered to meet her at the airport when she landed.
But it was not until March that he began calling her and emailing her almost daily, calling her a “grass” for contacting the police about his assault and making threats towards her. He was arrested again and gave a prepared statement, denying making contact and any wrongdoing.
Parker also has six previous convictions for seven offences, including a robbery in 2003. Stuart Field, defending, said: “This relationship was perhaps, with the benefit of hindsight, a recipe for disaster from the outset.” He also said that Parker now “accepted” his culpability for the hotel-room attack.