Scarborough "psychological monster" who beat, terrorised and threatened to kill disabled husband is locked up

Elizabeth Ameyaw-O’Malley, 48, a “cold, calculating, skilful manipulator” and devoutly religious woman of Ghanaian descent, imposed “religious rules” in the household which she “ruled with an iron fist”, making her seriously ill husband Terence O’Malley’s life a living nightmare.

Prosecutor Brooke Morrison said any failure to comply with those “strict rules” was met with violence inside the marital home in Scarborough.

Ameyaw-O’Malley, a former teaching assistant and a doctor’s daughter, turned into a “monster” after her 62-year-old husband suffered serious injuries in a road accident in 2014, York Crown Court heard.

For many years after his accident, Mr O’Malley was rendered practically quadriplegic and totally unable to support himself and has spent the last 10 years striving against all odds, learning to stand and walk limited distances.

Ms Morrison said the former couple had been married for 16 years after meeting in Ghana.

Mr O’Malley had fallen ill while on holiday in the west African country and was treated by his future wife’s father through whom they met and later married.

The initially happy marriage soured when Ameyaw-O’Malley’s behaviour changed after she became her husband’s carer following the road crash 10 years ago.

“The defendant, following the car accident, developed some quite extreme religious views which she attempted to impose (on Mr O’Malley and the household),” added Ms Morrison.

“She imposed a number of strict rules in his home and became violent whenever those rules were not complied with.

"That included shouting and becoming physically violent.”

Ameyaw-O’Malley, who used to work as a teaching assistant at a primary school, would often poke her husband on the arm and elbow, knowing this would be “particularly painful” because they were parts of his body seriously injured in the road accident.

She once physically restrained him on a bed, climbed on top of him “in rage” and punched him.

She also repeatedly threatened him with a knife, telling him she would kill him, then punched him in the face with such force that his glasses broke.

She then spat in his face.

Things came to a head on January 21 this year when, during an argument, Ameyaw-O’Malley went into the kitchen, grabbed the “largest knife in the house” and told her husband: “I will kill you.

"God wants me to kill you.”

She then ran at him with the kitchen knife and bit him on the chest, causing bruising.

Ameyaw-O’Malley, of Mount View, Scarborough, was subsequently arrested but falsely claimed that it was her husband who had been abusive to her and was “trying to make problems for her”.

She was charged with using controlling and coercive behaviour, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and threatening a person with a weapon.

She denied the latter two offences but admitted using controlling and coercive behaviour between April 2022 and January 2023.

The prosecution ultimately dropped the charges she denied.

Ameyaw-O’Malley appeared for sentence today (July 16) when the prosecution read out a statement from her long-suffering husband, who divorced her soon after her arrest.

He said he had been “living in fear (of her) for some time” and described her as a “psychological monster” who was “unable to feel any remorse for the violence that she has inflicted”.

He said she was “a really cold, calculating woman” who “believed her own lies”.

He had been “traumatised” by her bullying behaviour and “extreme religious views” and had since been diagnosed with clinical depression for which he was on daily medication.

He had since fitted CCTV cameras around his home and changed all the door locks in case his ex-wife came round to the property.

“The (victim) said the defendant is a skilful manipulator who is highly deceitful,” added Ms Morrison.

She said the victim had been “scarred for life” by his ex-partner’s behaviour which included “multiple methods of controlling behaviour”.

She said the father-of-two had been subjected to cruelty and violence for at least nine months which was intended to “degrade” him through verbal abuse and insults.

She said he was a “particularly vulnerable” individual as he suffered from a range of serious health conditions including advanced renal disease and diabetes.

Defence barrister Victoria Smithswain said that problems in the marriage had arisen due to the strain of Mr O’Malley’s debilitating and deteriorating condition following the road accident.

She said Ameyaw-O’Malley developed “chronic fatigue” from looking after her husband which aggravated her violent and controlling behaviour towards him for “many years of his life”.

Judge Simon Hickey said Ameyaw-O’Malley’s behaviour towards her “extremely vulnerable” ex-husband was so serious that only an immediate jail sentence could follow.

He told her that instead of providing her ex-husband with love and care following the road accident, she had subjected him to “extreme violence” over many months.

Mr Hickey said she was a “cold, calculating” woman who appeared to have a “religious fixation” and didn’t seem to feel “any remorse or guilt” for what she had done.

He said he agreed with the victim that Ameyaw-O’Malley had shown “total indifference” to his suffering and had been “ice cold after each and every act”.

She had caused “extreme emotional harm” with the intention of “degrading this poor man”.

Jailing Ameyaw-O’Malley for two years and three months, Mr Hickey told her she would serve half of that behind bars before being released on prison licence.

She was also made subject to a 10-year restraining order banning her from contacting her ex-husband directly and going to his address.