Aiden Ford, 40, of Hanham, Bristol, had his three-year suspended sentence increased to an immediate term of four years and three months' imprisonment after Attorney General Ellie Reeves KC MP referred the case to the Court of Appeal under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme, the Attorney General's Office said in a 20 October 2026 press release.

The court heard that between February and August 2025 Ford subjected his former partner to repeated violent assaults and coercive and controlling behaviour, including trapping her in his home, threatening her life and contacting her relentlessly after she tried to end the relationship. On one occasion he forced her into his car, drove to a secluded area and restrained her before assaulting and suffocating her with his forearm. After she reported the abuse, he pressured her to withdraw her statements to police.

At Cardiff Crown Court on 11 June 2026, Ford was given three years' imprisonment suspended for three years for controlling and coercive behaviour, suffocation, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and perverting the course of justice. On 20 October 2026 the Court of Appeal increased the sentence. Reeves said tackling violence against women and girls was her top priority and that there was no place for domestic abuse in society.