John Gizzi

Introduction

John Gizzi is a 55-year-old man from St Asaph in Denbighshire, Wales, who was jailed for four years and eleven months at Mold Crown Court after pleading guilty to coercive and controlling behaviour towards his partner, Natasha Farah, 32, and to the intentional strangulation of her sister. The abuse came to light only after Farah was found having attempted suicide in April 2026 — an attempt the Crown did not attribute to Gizzi — with the investigation that followed unearthing what sentencing judge Judge Mills called one of the worst cases of coercive control the court had seen. Farah was left with severe brain damage, her mother has begun campaigning for longer sentences in coercive-control cases, and shouts of “scumbag” and “rot in hell” rang out from the public gallery as Gizzi appeared by video link from prison .

Background Information

Gizzi’s campaign of physical and verbal abuse against Farah ran from March 2025 to April 2026, according to the prosecution’s account to the court. Prosecutor Elen Owen outlined a long list of attacks, including an assault at the gym the couple both used, where Gizzi threw keys at Farah and hit her in the face when she arrived to ask for them, and a second physical assault at the same gym she later described to a friend . He repeatedly followed her, attacked her in her car and sent countless messages using abusive language. In September 2025 Farah was found after another apparent suicide attempt, and a call to the emergency services that day recorded Gizzi physically and verbally abusing Farah’s mother, Denise .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Admitted coercive control of his partner and the intentional strangulation of her sister; jailed four years and eleven months.

The catalogue of abuse was unearthed after Farah was found at her flat in Rhos on Sea on 7 April 2026, having attempted suicide. It was Gizzi himself who found her and phoned the emergency services; the prosecutor was careful to tell the court it was not the Crown’s case that Gizzi was responsible for the attempt, but the discovery triggered the police investigation that exposed the abuse . In his sentencing remarks, Judge Mills described an “appalling tragedy” and told Gizzi he had used “dreadful misogynistic language” towards Farah as “part of the process of humiliation”, “destroying” her self-worth. The judge said Natasha was often seen to have bruises and was once assaulted by Gizzi with a dumbbell; he assaulted her in front of her child, accused her of sleeping with other men, and attacked her on Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day — “she would plead with you to desist,” the judge told him . The court also heard that a domestic abuse protection order sought on Farah’s behalf never went ahead because she asked the magistrates not to proceed, and that she “had a note which appeared to tell her what to say”. When Farah’s sister Samantha challenged Gizzi, his response was violent: “you gripped her neck with your hands, she fell to floor… there were marks on her neck” — the strangulation to which he admitted .

Public Reaction and Consequences

The sentence was met with open anger in the courtroom: spectators shouted “scumbag” and “rot in hell” at the video-linked Gizzi, and some called out that the four-years-and-eleven-months term was too short before an usher asked them to be quiet . Farah’s mother, wearing a “Justice for Natasha” T-shirt, read a lengthy victim impact statement describing the “sheer devastating” impact of Gizzi’s behaviour and the “pain, grief, anger, torture” he had inflicted, called him a “smiling devil monster”, and said she would campaign in her daughter’s name for sentences around coercive and controlling behaviour to be longer . Judge Mills told Gizzi he had subjected Farah to “appalling” behaviour.

Current Status

Gizzi, 55, is serving a prison sentence of four years and eleven months imposed at Mold Crown Court after admitting coercive and controlling behaviour and intentional strangulation . Natasha Farah remains with severe brain damage in the aftermath of her April 2026 suicide attempt, which the Crown did not attribute to Gizzi, and no separate proceedings arising from the abuse investigation beyond his conviction were reported .

Impact on Their Career/Life

At 55, Gizzi leaves court as a convicted abuser with a sentence that his victim’s family publicly denounced as too short, and the judge’s remarks — “one of the worst” coercive-control cases the court had seen — now form the permanent judicial characterization of his conduct . The case has become a local rallying point for sentencing reform: Farah’s mother’s pledge to campaign for longer coercive-control sentences in her daughter’s name gives the case a public afterlife beyond Gizzi’s cell door, and the failed domestic abuse protection order — derailed by a note that appeared to dictate the victim’s words — stands in the record as an example of how control continues inside legal processes meant to stop it .

Sources

• “St Asaph man jailed for ‘appalling’ violent abuse of partner” — BBC News, 12 November 2026: source