A 26-year-old mother nearly fainted after she Googled her new boyfriend and discovered he was a convicted rapist using an alias name. Louis Martin, 41, had told the woman his name was Louis Bonner when they began a relationship in February 2026. When she later searched online, she found news articles about his 2007 rape conviction and indefinite registration on the sex offenders' register.
Discovery and immediate aftermath
The woman, from Wirral, had initially told Martin that their relationship "wasn't anything serious," but he often stayed at her home where her young child was present. Around the end of March, she woke up to find Martin looking through her phone and accusing her of seeing other men. He also asked if she had ever been to prison, admitting he had been jailed but claiming it was for other matters. Her subsequent Google search revealed the truth, and she recalled "feeling faint" at the discovery, fearing for her daughter's safety.
Martin became aware of her discovery and said, "I know what you've found out. I'm going to go," despite pleading that the rape was "a long time ago, when he was much younger." The woman ended the relationship, but Martin could not accept it.
Relentless harassment and abuse
Over the next two months, Martin bombarded the woman with contact. He turned up at her house, contacted her sister, and added her friends on social media. In one message, he threatened to kick her door in and go to her sister's house. On April 26, while she was on a night out in Liverpool city centre, Martin repeatedly demanded to know her location and ordered her to send photos to prove her whereabouts. He then claimed he was in a bar next door and warned: "Leave or I will kill everyone with you."
After she lost her front door key, Martin told her he had it, drove her home, and stayed overnight. He continued to turn up, and she let him in out of fear for herself and her daughter. He threatened to kill himself if she did not resume the relationship and told her sister: "I'm obsessed with her. I'm not going to leave her alone. If she thinks she can get away from me, she's got no chance."
Assault in front of her daughter
On May 4, Martin arrived at her property, banged on the door, took her phone, and left. He drove to Cheshire to dispose of the device, but a member of the public found it and returned it via her father. Martin then gave her a new iPhone and SIM card, apparently to make her lose her saved contacts. He insisted on driving her to collect her old phone, then snatched it, kicked her, grabbed the back of her neck, and held her head down, causing her to bang into the car—while her daughter was present in the vehicle.
His persistent contact continued until his arrest on May 8. In a victim impact statement read to the court, she said: "From the beginning, I made it clear I didn't want anything serious. His behaviour quickly became controlling and intrusive. I struggle to get through daily tasks that once felt normal. I barely sleep, usually only two or three hours per night. When I do, I relive everything in my head, waking up exhausted. There hasn't been a single day where I haven't thought about what happened and what he might do next. I'm scared that if I let someone in the same thing will happen again."
Martin's criminal history and sentencing
Martin has five previous convictions for nine offences, including failing to comply with sex offender notification requirements in 2016 and 2022, and three years for assault occasioning actual bodily harm and controlling and coercive behaviour in 2017. In mitigation, defence barrister Peter White said Martin suffered a "cardiac episode" after arrest, underwent heart surgery, and was kept under armed guard in hospital for three weeks. White stated: "It has to be accepted on his behalf that his offending is aggravated by his previous convictions. Albeit there have been numerous breaches of the notification requirement, it was imposed some 20 years ago. There has been no repetition of any index offence."
Martin pleaded guilty to controlling or coercive behaviour, assault, and failing to comply with notification requirements. Appearing via video link from HMP Liverpool, he was sentenced to 27 months in prison and handed a 10-year restraining order.
