Wigan rape and domestic violence victim's ordeals at hands of serial abuser

Nathan Modlinsky is beginning a 15-year sentence after a Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court jury found him guilty of 10 sexual, violent and manipulative crimes inflicted on a young partner five years ago.

The 29-year-old thug has already featured in Wigan Today articles due to other crimes of extreme violence inflicted on women before and after the series of attacks for which he has now been successfully prosecuted.

And his ex today bravely spoke about the terrors and traumas he inflicted on her during a nine-month period in 2020 which included forcing himself on her sexually, repeatedly beating her and locking her in their home.

The victim, whom we shall call Jane (not her real name), says that she needs to speak out because other women need to know of what Modlinsky is capable.

Another reason is that he humiliated her by fabricating a story about her having sex with a dog and telling all her friends and family, and she wants them all to know now that this was part of the devious, controlling behaviour that led to his jailing.

She had only just turned 20 when they first met and he was her first boyfriend. On reflection, she says that she was naive and tolerated way more than she should have because she had nothing to measure the relationship against, and she rashly felt she could change him.

At his trial last November Modlinsky, latterly of HMP Deerbolt in County Durham and previously from Leigh, claimed that drink and drugs were largely to blame for his outbursts, but Jane says that she now realises that he knew perfectly well what he was doing and that he is both “insecure and a monster.”

The abuser was convicted of two counts of rape, two assaults by penetration, five counts of causing actual bodily harm and one of controlling and coercive behaviour in an intimate or family relationship.

All the crimes took place between March and November 2020 just as the Covid pandemic was in its first throes.

At his sentencing hearing this month, the judge told him he must serve 11 years behind bars and another four on extended licence.

Jane said: “It’s terrifying to think what I went through and put up with.

"And yet it started well enough. We began a relationship in early 2020 and at first it was fine. Lockdown happened and he said that it would make sense if I moved in with him and that went OK in the beginning.

"Then one day I was invited to a barbecue and I was introduced to this lad who, when he found out who I was going out with, said ‘have you got a death wish?’

"I didn’t know what he was talking about but he also said that Nathan owed him money for drugs.

"I told Nathan on the phone and he said ‘thanks for telling me,’ and when I got home we talked about it again and he suddenly smacked me hard in the face and said ‘that’s for talking to people I don't like.’ I didn’t know he didn’t like him but I was sort of blaming myself.”

From then on the relationship deteriorated.

Jane said Modlsinky would get drunk or high and drugs and become violent.

She added: “When he was in that state he would do whatever he wanted when he wanted it. If you said ‘no’ he would say ‘why, why?’ and force himself until you gave in. It was like mental torture.

"On one occasion he had a big paranoia attack and became convinced that I’d been sleeping with a dog. He had me locked in the house. He couldn't accuse me of sleeping with other men because I couldn’t go anywhere so he came up with this ridiculous tale.

"He punched the hell out of me in the lounge telling me to confess and I thought I was going to die, so just to make him stop I told him it was true. He had a voice recorder in his back pocket which had been on and after I said it he looked so happy.

"After that he went round messaging people, speaking to people and sending an edited version of the confrontation – with all the shouting missed out. He even sent it to my mum who was sickened and distraught by what she wrongly thought I’d done.

"From then on he would punch me, kick me and abuse me. One time he stood on my rib cage. On another, when he was intoxicated with drugs, he grabbed my hair and wrapped it round the fist of one hand and stuck the fingers of his other hand into my mouth and dragged me upstairs.

"He then pulled down my pyjama bottoms and tried to get the dog to mount me. He then caved in the back of my head with an e-cigarette. There was blood everywhere.

"After all this I look back and am astonished to see myself trying to cover it up. I changed the bed and put a towel round my head in case someone came round because of all the screaming and then I could pretend I was just washing my hair.

"He would use objects to assault me sexually and ignored all my protests.

"I stayed with him because I naively believed I could change him. Bizarrely I cared for him and I didn’t want him to kill himself when really it was me whose life was in danger.”

Eventually Jane realised she needed to get away. Her first attempt was thwarted when Modlinsky ran after her down the street after her, dragged her back and threatened to chain her to the radiator if she tried escaping again. But eventually, with the help of a relative to create a decoy, she did give him the slip.

She said: “It seems crazy to think what I went through. He was my first boyfriend and I didn’t know what love was. I thought love was caring for someone until the end even if they hurt you. You don’t give up on them.

"He always claimed it was the drink and drugs to blame for his crimes, but I know now that he knew exactly what he was doing.

"That’s his personality: he beats women. Why he does it, I don’t know. Maybe it makes his ego big by putting other people down. I’ve come to the conclusion that he is gay although he would never admit that because he considers himself one of the lads.

"He says he had a bad upbringing, but again that’s him playing the victim when he makes so many other people victims. He wants to make everyone feel sorry for him when he’s battering and raping girls.

"He is a woman’s worst nightmare. He is a monster while being very insecure.”

Jane has now moved away from the Wigan area to begin a new life, and says she is now a “completely different woman” who is travelling the world and doing lots of athletic activities including climbing.

She had another relationship after Modlinsky which lasted until recently, but she says she is perfectly happy being on her own at the moment and is in no rush to meet another man.