Samantha’s ex-partner isolated and abused her. He’s the first man in NSW to serve jail time for coercive control

The abuse Samantha endured started slowly. Her then-partner Callum Fairleigh would monitor her location, questioning her movements. He would snap, becoming verbally abusive and hurling vile insults. He hid her keys, disputed her credit card charges and attempted to isolate her from friends and family.

In public, however, Fairleigh was the picture-perfect partner, adorning her with gifts and compliments.

His manipulation and mood swings made Samantha doubt herself. “You’re in such a confused state you think, maybe it’s my fault. I just felt like a horrible person all the time,” she said.

But she said there was a part of her that knew he was toxic. After feeling “like a prisoner” during the pair’s six-year relationship, in November 2024 she left for the fifth and final time and turned to the police.

It was then that investigators suggested she was a victim of coercive control.

Coercive control is defined as a person using repeated patterns of physical or non-physical abuse used to hurt, scare, intimidate, threaten or control someone. NSW criminalised the offence in July 2024.

Last week Fairleigh, 34, became the first person in NSW to serve prison time for coercive control. He was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of 15 months.

Samantha, who is protected by a 10-year apprehended violence order, said Friday’s sentencing was “validating”. She gave permission for her first name to be published to educate others about coercive control and help victim survivors feel less alone.

“I felt a sense of relief. I still fight in my mind that I’m dramatic because he kept drilling into my head that what was happening wasn’t so bad,” she said.

“For him to actually get a jail sentence shows it was that bad.”

The pair were together on and off between 2018 and 2024 and lived in inner-city Sydney.

According to court documents, between July and October 2024 Fairleigh would regularly belittle, insult and humiliate Samantha. He was convicted only for his behaviour from July 2024 when the laws were implemented.

He attempted to isolate her from her friends and family, “bombarding” her with calls and texts when she was with them, demanding she cut contact.

“Cancel the plan ... I won’t ask again. I’m not asking, I am telling you,” he wrote in one text message while she was having a rare dinner with a friend.

In another text exchange, he demanded she stop talking to her sister and mother, who had threatened to call the police over Fairleigh’s abuse. When she was on a call with her sister, he called her five times demanding she hang up. “Be on my team, always,” he wrote.

He regularly demanded she unlock her phone. When she once refused, he smashed the device against a wall. He hid her car and house keys, questioned her purchases or threatened to dispute charges, and accused her of looking for a job against his wishes.

He also attempted to pressure her into sex while she was recovering from surgery.

After Samantha left the relationship in November 2024, a specialist detective began investigating Fairleigh’s coercive control, with Samantha providing hundreds of abusive text messages as evidence. Fairleigh was issued an AVO.

But he continued to contact Samantha throughout December and January, using banking transactions to send messages and a secondary number to pose as a nurse, claiming Fairleigh was in “critical condition” in an intensive care unit.

In January 2025, he was arrested and charged with coercive control, along with stalking and six AVO breaches. From jail, he continued to contact Samantha, writing letters and sending them to his mother to pass on.

Court records described Fairleigh having an “utter disregard” for bail conditions and the AVO. Police argued he presented an “unreasonable risk” to Samantha and other women, noting he was still active on the dating app Bumble.

Before his 2025 arrest, he had been subject to AVOs protecting Samantha and charged with twice breaching this AVO, and twice assaulting Samantha and damaging her property, though these charges were dismissed. He previously pleaded guilty to one assault charge and two financial deception charges relating to other victims.

Samantha is undergoing trauma counselling, which she says has helped to “rewire” her brain and view the abuse for what it really was.

“When I left I was a mess. If police didn’t take it this seriously, and he wasn’t locked up after all those [AVO] breaches, I could have probably ended up back with him, and that’s scary,” she said.

NSW Police recorded 386 coercive control incidents between July 2024 and September 2025, resulting in 18 charges. The first person convicted of the offence in December 2024 was issued an Intensive Corrections Order.

Fairleigh’s sentence is the first to result in jail time. With time served, he will be released on parole in April.

Two-thirds of coercive control incidents were accompanied by another offence, including stalking, domestic assault or malicious damage. The most common controlling behaviour was harassment, monitoring or tracking.

In 97 per cent of intimate partner domestic violence homicides cases, the victim had experienced coercive and controlling behaviours before being killed.

Anyone needing support can contact 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732), National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028, Lifeline 13 11 14, and Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800.

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