The boyfriend of an NHS nurse who killed herself over fears no one would believe he regularly beat her up has been jailed for six months for assault.
Alexandra Reid, 30, was financially, emotionally and physically abused by her 35-year-old boyfriend Peter Yeung.
Yeung, a gambling addict from Toxteth, Liverpool, is thought to have repeatedly told her that no one would believe her if she reported the assaults.
Alexandra, known as Alex, was found dead at her home in Anfield in February last year after taking her own life due to fears no one would believe her domestic abuse claims.
Yeung had pleaded not guilty to assaulting Alex but was today given a six-month prison sentence at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court, of which he was told he will serve half.
Alexandra Reid, 30, (pictured) is said to have ended her own life because she feared no one would believe she was suffering at the hands of her boyfriend Peter Yeung
Dressed in a grey tracksuit, Yeung looked to the floor as emotional statements from Alex’s family were read aloud in court earlier today.
District Judge Andrew Shaw told Yeung: ‘Alex had confided in you that she had suffered domestic abuse before and you used this against her and you told her police would not believe it [abuse] was happening again.
‘She was a vulnerable victim after being previously attacked and she was manipulated into believing that police would not believe her.’
During his trial, in December, the former takeaway worker was found guilty of two charges of assault and admitted one of criminal damage – with District Judge Shaw stating his version of events was not plausible.
The trial heard how Yeung had throttled, kicked and burst the lip of Alex, and even tried to phone the police to cover his tracks, claiming she would ‘make up’ the abuse.
Peter Yeung (pictured), a gambling addict from Toxteth, Liverpool, is thought to have financially, emotionally and physically abused Alex who worked as a nurse
Blasting him as ‘calculating and thoroughly dishonest,’ Judge Shaw said: ‘You tried to escape the consequences of your actions by misleading the police on the phone and in the evidence you gave to court.’
Angela Conlan, prosecuting, questioned why Yeung was not brave enough to plead guilty to the assaults after distressing images of Alex covered in bruises were shown to the court.
The sentencing comes nearly one year after Alex tragically took her own life, on February 24, 2020.
An inquest heard Alex died just seven days after making statements to police.
Judge Shaw described Alex’s suicide as the ‘tragic shadow’ which hung over the case.
Today’s sentencing heard an emotional victim personal statement from Alex’s sister, Katy Reid, who called Yeung ‘evil’.
She said: ‘I feel empty within myself without Alex. [Her death] has left me unable to go to work because I’ve no motivation. She is no longer with me and I don’t see the point.’
The 35-year-old (pictured) was today given a six-month prison sentence at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court
She added: ‘This has destroyed my family. My mum is really struggling without her and Alex not being here with us is making it worse.
‘Peter is an evil person. He is cruel and he battered her black and blue.
‘He emptied her bank account and he gambled away all her money.
‘She was under his spell and he was such a good liar. She was a beautiful young woman with the world at her feet.’
Yeung assaulted community nurse Alex on January 17 and February 17 in 2020.
He also admitted causing criminal damage to Alex’s mobile phone.
The trial heard Yeung and Alex had been together for around one year but, after they moved in together, their relationship turned ‘rocky’ as the pair argued about money.
Yeung, who admitted he was a gambling addict, was accused by Alex in a police statement of taking her money to spend in casinos after he was made unemployed from a takeaway, which he denied.
Nurse Alex also supported the couple for four months, paying all of the rent, and this led to arguments between the pair, the court heard.
On January 21, 2020, Yeung and Alex got into an argument before he was due to leave for a new hospitality job in Widnes.
In a statement from Alex, read in court by Ms Conlan, she said: ‘I can’t remember what the argument was over, but I told him to leave which caused him to lose his temper.
‘He threw me across a wall in our home, he hit me against the wall and he pushed me down the stairs.
‘He started throwing things around and he booted me into the dining room table.’
Alex went on to say she barricaded herself in the bathroom with her back against the door, but Yeung kicked the door and pulled her out by the hair.
While doing so, Alex said: ‘He called me a slag and said “watch what happens to you, I hate you”.’
She said he then ‘throttled’ her and took her phone away.
As the court was shown images of Alex’s bruised body, Yeung admitted a bruise on her arm might have been caused by simply moving her out of the way because she tried to block him from leaving the house for work.
But he questioned the other pictures, saying: ‘I saw her two weeks or so later and they [the bruises] weren’t there, she didn’t mention it.’
Alex was found to have bruises on her palm, arm, ankle, chest and neck.
Yeung and Alex split up shortly afterwards but the couple still had a month remaining on their tenancy.
Yeung relocated to Sheffield for two weeks but on February 17 he returned to the house where the second assault occurred.
He had claimed that everything was fine until Alex made suggestions he had not really been in Sheffield and was instead being unfaithful.
Under questioning from his solicitor, Vicky Balenski, he claimed she tore bed sheets off of a bed he was making and threw his phone against the wall.
However, Ms Conlan said: ‘Alex details being in an argument with the defendant and he elbowed her in the face, bruising her left cheek and bursting her lip.
‘Her phone was also smashed as she says he smashed it.’
In her statement, Alex said Yeung smashed the phone so she could not call the police for help.
The court heard how Yeung brazenly phoned the police himself to say Alex was going to make up allegations that he had hit her and he wanted to call them to get his version of events across.
He claimed Alex said: ‘I’m going to get you done-in.’
In a haunting 999 call played to the police, Yeung can be heard shouting at Alex and saying ‘I haven’t hit you’, before Alex manages to ring the emergency services some time later to ask if they are on their way.
The force did not arrive until eight hours later.
Yeung said he ‘didn’t know’ how Alex’s lip was burst and shamefully said she was plotting to falsely report him to the police for domestic abuse ‘like she had with previous partners’.
Sentencing today, Judge Shaw said: ‘Many factors of this case are tragically memorable.’
Yeung was sentenced to six months for the first count of assault, four months for the second and one month for criminal damage.
All sentences will run concurrently.
Vicky Balenski, defending, said her client felt remorse and said he ‘torments himself every day with what he could have done’ to stop Alex’s death.
He was also given a restraining order against Alex’s family for five years, and told to pay £128 in a victim surcharge fee.
Alex’s family have spoken previously about the 30-year-old’s ordeal.
Speaking after an inquest earlier this year, Alex’s sister, Katy Reid, said she was ‘loved by everyone’.
Katy said: ‘I don’t know anyone who didn’t like her. Everyone’s just really heartbroken that it’s happened.
‘She was good to all her friends and always there for them no matter what.
‘Even if they rang her in the middle of the night, she would go and have a cup of tea with them, she was that kind of person.’
During the inquest, her mother, Annette Leonard, said: ‘She was loved by everyone who knew her.
‘She meant the world to us and she made a difference to everyone’s lives that she touched.’
Anyone seeking help can call Samaritans free on 116 123 or visit Samaritans.org