12/10/2026
| "I haven’t been able to sleep a full night" - Woman speaks out as man jailed for four years for coercive control, stalking and non-fatal strangulation.
The brave survivor of a 10-years-long campaign of coercive control and violence has spoken out as her abuser has been jailed.
A court heard how Asif Alam used coercive control, abused and assaulted the woman over a period of 10 years, starting when she was 15 years old and he was 28.
In a powerful impact statement, the survivor said: "The realisation of the abuse has destroyed my mental health, I have been diagnosed with Complex PTSD and I have been told that this is because my body doesn’t know how to react to the trauma from the past twelve years.
"I haven’t been able to sleep a full night, I have constant and vivid nightmares, thinking about what he’s done to me, I often have nightmares about his hands squeezing around my neck and I can feel it getting tighter until I wake up sweating. I have flash backs randomly throughout the day, even when I am doing mundane things. There’s no trigger and it is clear as day, visions of him hitting me, like a scary film playing in my head.
"I have sought help and I have been given medication, but it doesn’t seem to help, I have suicidal thoughts and I am scared that if I am on any stronger medication then it might make my thoughts worse.
"I try to feel optimistic for the future and I hope that one day the nightmares and flashbacks will stop, and I can finally live my life with the freedom that I lost when I was 15 years old."
Asif Alam (28/08/1986) of Alston Gardens, Burnage, pleaded guilty to coercive controlling behaviour, non-fatal intentional strangulation, assault by beating and stalking involving fear of violence.
On Friday 9 October, Alam was sentenced to four years prison. He was also made subject to a 16-year restraining order.
