A landscape gardener has been jailed for 16 years for breaking the neck of his teacher lover when she threatened to leave him.
Trudi Burgess, 57, was left paralysed from the chest down when ‘manipulative bully’ Robert Easom flew into an ‘uncontrollable’ rage and launched his ‘vicious’ and ‘forceful’ attack.
Easom, 56, pinned her face down on a bed before placing his entire body weight on her neck until it snapped, with Ms Burgess believing she was ‘going to die’.
He dialled 999 but then lied about what happened, claiming she had ‘fallen out of bed’ and it was ‘just a frolic which has gone horribly wrong’.
Easom denied deliberately breaking her neck and intending to cause her serous harm, but in November a jury at Preston Crown Court took less than 27 minutes to find him guilty following a trial.
After he was jailed today for 16 years, with a further four-year extended term, Ms Burgess spoke of her ‘incredible sadness’.
Speaking outside court in an incredible show of bravery, she said: ‘I feel incredibly sad but I feel content that justice is done.
‘But it’s not a happy day, because I’m like this everyday for the rest of my life and this is an incredibly difficult condition to deal with.
‘When I glanced over at him, I just felt complete pity and sorrow that he can’t actually understand who he is and the rehabilitation he needs.’
Robert Easom, 56, has been jailed for 16 years for breaking the neck of his teacher lover Trudi Burgess when she threatened to leave him
The horrific attack left the 57-year-old teacher tetraplegic and she now requires 24-hour care
Trudi Burgess speaking outside court after Easom was jailed for 16 years
During the trial, the court heard how mother-of-two Ms Burgess was grieving the death of her husband from a brain tumour and was ’emotionally vulnerable’ when she met Easom, who was her sister’s gardener.
Their relationship was initially everything she wanted ‘heady, passionate and loving’, but it then became ‘abusive and violent’ and she became ‘alienated’ from her family.
By February 2025 she plucked up the courage to tell him the relationship was over after staying the night at Easom’s home in Chipping, in the Ribble Valley, near Chorley, Lancashire.
Easom launched his ‘unprovoked and deliberate attack’ after flying into a ‘blind’ rage.
He swore at Ms Burgess and despite her pleas for him not to hurt her he grabbed and moved her so she was on her knees at the end of the bed.
Using both hands or his chest, he then pushed down with his ‘entire bodyweight’ on the back of her head, forcing her chin into her chest.
Ms Burgess screamed but Easom carried on and she then ‘heard a crack and all feeling left her body’.
Giving evidence, Ms Burgess said: ‘I think I screamed, but then once he folded my head in, I had no voice, I couldn’t scream,’ she told he jury.
‘I couldn’t get out, and he’s so strong, there was absolutely no getting out of it.
‘And then he just kept folding my head, in and in and in.
‘I kept thinking, “He’s gonna stop now,” and, ‘I’m gonna die.’
Ms Burgess added that she remembered flopping back and telling Easom: ‘Oh my God, I can’t feel anything in my body, you’ve ruined both our lives.’
Easom initially told Ms Burgess she was ‘fine’ but when he realised she couldn’t move he put his head in his hands and told her: ‘Oh my God Trudi, what have I done?
But in a 999 call played to the jury, when Easom was a court handler what had happened, he replied: ‘She’s just had an accident and she can’t move.’
He added: ‘She’s fallen out of bed and just landed in a bad way really.’
And when paramedics arrived at home, he told them the couple had been ‘mollycoddling’ and ‘messing round’.
But Ms Burgess later told police there had not been a fall or a play fight and Easom had injured her deliberately.
Trudi Burgess, 57, was left paralysed from the chest down
Mother-of-two Ms Burgess was grieving the death of her husband Craig from a brain tumour and was ’emotionally vulnerable’ when she met Easom
Hospital CT scans confirmed her neck had been broken and she would never walk again, and she now requires 24-hour care.
Easom had attacked Ms Burgess previously.
On one occasion, he wrapped Ms Burgess’ head in a bed sheet until she was unable to breath and on another headbutted her when she complained they did not have enough crockery or cutlery to host friends for dinner.
He pleaded guilty to those two assaults and had previously admitted engaging in coercive and controlling behaviour between July 2017 and February 2025.
Easom also admitted breaking Ms Burgess neck and causing her tetraplegia, but denied intending to cause her very serious harm.
After his arrest, Easom told police in a prepared statement that he would never do anything intentionally to hurt Ms Burgess.
‘I love Trudi more than life itself,’ he said.
