A line chef at Bracknell’s Prezzo restaurant has avoided jail despite admitting to hitting his former partner over the head with a tablet computer three times.
Lajos Gabor, of Glebewood, Bracknell, admitted to subjecting his wife to coercive and controlling behaviour over a number of years.
This included incidents such as pinching, name-calling, pushing, slapping and shouting.
The woman eventually called time on his abuse and went to report Gabor at Bracknell police station in March 2020, but both times she visited the station was closed.
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She called 101 on him following this, but he later ‘got angry again’ and she was forced to call 999.
Officers showed up at their home four hours after she called and Gabor was arrested.
During a police interview, he admitted he “struggled with his temper” and “lost control” with his wife.
Appearing in the dock yesterday, Reading Crown Court heard how 41-year-old Gabor, who is Hungarian and possesses limited English, did not share a language with his Spanish-speaking wife.
Despite this, they had been in a relationship for four years by the time he was arrested in March 2020, and the couple have a son together.
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Gabor’s bad behaviour began in January 2018 when he pinched his wife following an argument in which he told her she was “good for nothing”, “always wrong” and a “son of a b****”.
Prosecuting, Bartholomew O'Toole said that on another occasion, in September 2018, he grabbed her by the neck and pushed her onto the sofa.
And in March 2020, he hit her on the head with a computer tablet three times after she refused to enter the device’s password for him.
Gabor then threw the computer into the bathtub and smashed the tablet before later breaking his wife’s phone.
Defending, Matthew Hardyman said Gabor worked as a chef at Bracknell’s Prezzo restaurant in The Lexicon.
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He added: “He has had a considerable period of time to reflect on his offending.”
“He now looks forward to the future and continuing to work.
“He hopes that one day in the future he and his wife can take their son somewhere. He knows that will take some time and the relationship will have to improve before then.”
Sentencing, Recorder Simon Dyer QC said Gabor would likely lose his job if he was sent to prison.
Instead, he handed Gabor a 23-week prison sentence suspended for two years, in which he will have to complete 40 days of rehabilitation activities in this time.
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Mr Dyer said: “This allows you to address your attitudes towards relationships.”
Gabor, who was sentenced at Reading Crown Court on Tuesday, June 8, was also handed a restraining order from his former partner for five years after admitting to controlling and coercive behaviour.
Correction: A previous version of this article stated Gabor was the head chef at Prezzo, as was declared in court. Prezzo has been in touch with the News to say he was in fact a line chef.
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