My drunken boyfriend attacked me when I refused to have sex with him

EXCLUSIVE: My drunken boyfriend attacked me when I refused to have sex with him because he had FaceTimed me while he was romping with someone else

•  The father-and-son assailants escaped with suspended sentences

A mother attacked by her drunken plumber boyfriend after she refused to have sex with him has told for the first time exactly why she rejected his advances.

Luana Dougherty, 49, said she gave Alex Craig the elbow because he’d recently FaceTimed her while he was having sex with someone else.

The rebuff sparked a terrifying attack from Craig, 36, who even called his 79-year-old father Francis to join in as the pair unleashed a torrent of violence on Luana, her daughter Carlee and her boyfriend Finn McBride, both 16.

Luana told MailOnline in an exclusive interview she was ‘in fear of her life’ when the two men attacked.

The father-and-son assailants escaped with suspended sentences for the melee at Frodsham, Cheshire, when they appeared in court this week.

Alex and Luana in happier times. Alex Craig a wealthy businessman who was refused sex by his lover Luana Dougherty recruited his 78-year old father Francis to ‘sort her out’ in a terrifying revenge attack

Luana told MailOnline in an exclusive interview she was ‘in fear of her life’ when the two men attacked

When police later arrested the father and son, they both claimed to be acting in self-defence and were each sentenced to 18 months in jail, suspended for 18 months after admitting affray at Chester Crown Court 

Luana explained how her five-year relationship with £72,000-a-year plumbing firm boss Craig had deteriorated because of his drinking and cheating.

But she finally decided to call it a day in March after a night of drinking wine with him because of the explicit video he had previously sent her of him having sex with someone else a few weeks previously.

‘I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,’ she said. ‘I took a screenshot and knew I had to get out of this relationship.

After drinking wine the evening before the fight, Luana said Craig carried on drinking and finished off a fridge full of beer.

Then the next morning, when his romantic overtures were turned down, he flew into a frenzy, attacking Luana herself, as well as Carlee and Finn – and bizarrely summoned his elderly father to join in.

‘When he’s boozed up, there’s no stopping him,’ recalled community support worker Luana. ‘There have been a few times before when he’d gone berserk, but this was the worst. He was like a man possessed.

‘He got it into his head that I’d taken his mobile phone because they’re the same colour, but I hadn’t.

‘It was all on quite a remote farm where we were staying and we were all terrified what was going to happen next,’ she recalled.

‘He pushed Carlee to the floor and dragged her around as Finn tried to help her up.’

Craig Jnr then pushed Finn onto the gravel before kicking him and throwing his bicycle at him while his father grabbed Carlee’s hair.

The young couple briefly took refuge in the bathroom, along with Carlee’s grandmother who was also at the house, and called the police.

Both were made a subject to an indefinite restraining order which bans them from contacting Miss Dougherty (pictured) – a community support worker in her 40s – and the teenagers

Alex Craig kicked Carlee in the ribs before he turned his attention to Finn who had tried to intervene and had taken his father’s car keys.

Luana, who had left earlier in the confrontation, returned to the house to retrieve her mobile phone but was pushed by her partner.

‘I could hear his dad shouting ‘pull her hair, pull her hair!’ and Alex was pulling great chunks of hair out – I really didn’t know what was going to happen next.

‘In a moment like that, you’re really in fear of your life.

‘I don’t know why he called his father – he’s a proper daddy’s boy.

‘They were using every object they could find to attack us. Alex threw a bicycle, an electric fan and pool balls at Finn.

‘When they had me on the floor and were pulling my hair, Finn saw the old man’s keys and grabbed them to stop them escaping.

READ MORE: Plumbing boss and his pensioner father launched terrifying revenge attack on son’s lover and her family after she refused to have sex with him – as pair are spared jail 

‘Then they both turned on Finn. The old man had his finger in Finn’s mouth and was literally trying to rip his face and Alex was biting Finn under the armpit.

‘That’s when I grabbed a carrier bag which had four cans of beer in it and a bottle of milk and started hitting Alex over the head with it, which got them off Finn and then they started to retreat.’

By the time police arrived, the two men had fled, but were arrested later.

They initially both claimed to be acting in self-defence, but were each sentenced to 18 months in jail, suspended for 18 months after admitting affray at Chester Crown Court. Their not guilty pleas to assault were accepted.

Craig Jnr was further ordered to pay a total of £3,750 in compensation to the three victims whilst his father must pay £750 in damages.

Both were made a subject to an indefinite restraining order which bans them from contacting Miss Dougherty and the teenagers.

Luana said she had enjoyed some happy times with Alex Craig, but he became uncontrollable after bouts of heavy drinking and she was glad to have found a much more stable relationship with her new partner, roofer Howard Kynaston.

In court this week, Craig Jnr’s counsel Gareth Roberts said- in mitigation: ‘He comes before the court properly embarrassed and ashamed by his involvement in this very unfortunate matter.

‘He knows he acted in a way that was entirely improper. He wishes he could turn the clock back and act in a different way. He is ordinarily an extremely productive and usually a law-abiding man.

‘The relationship with Luana Dougherty is now entirely over.’

For Craig Snr, John Wyn Williams, said: ‘He had quite a difficult childhood where he was moved to North Wales as an evacuee and was abandoned by his mother.

‘He has health problems and is not in the same financial position as his son – he has limited means.’

Sentencing the pair, Mr Recorder Mark Ainsworth said: ‘Frankly, the events of that day, however you dress them up, are shameful.

The relationship between the two is now over, the court heard

‘I find it remarkable that at no point during this incident, which lasted some time, neither of you stepped back to think ‘What on earth am I doing?’

‘At various times objects were thrown including pool balls. I make it absolutely clear, had there been a conviction after trial you would have been looking at immediate imprisonment.

‘While it is tempting to say that you must be going to prison, there’s a realistic prospect of rehabilitation so I must step back and suspend the sentence.’

‘It is quite rare to see father and son in the dock and it’s a very upsetting thing to see too – especially in these circumstances.’

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