A jealous brute who punched a Middlesbrough mum so hard her teeth went through her lip has been jailed.
Suzie Harburn, 40, was viciously attacked and repeatedly strangled by her former partner Dean Cameron.
Suzie says Cameron, 36, ‘just flipped’ one morning, as he grabbed her by the throat, picked her up and slammed her down the side of their bed.
Suzie screamed for help, and her son Jamie ran in, to find Cameron standing over his mum, as she lay injured on the bedroom floor.
Suzie Harburn (pictured) was viciously attacked and repeatedly strangled by her former partner Dean Cameron
Cameron punched Suzie so hard her teeth went through her lip. Suzie screamed for help, and her son Jamie ran in, to find Cameron standing over his mum, as she lay injured on the bedroom floor
Dean Cameron was jailed for two years. The couple met on Facebook and were together for over three years. Suzie says that Cameron was lovely at first, but that the ‘red flags started about four months in’ as he began trying to control her
Construction worker Cameron strangled Suzie and slammed her head into the bed frame three times that morning, on August 7, 2021.
The single mum says she had nudged him and asked, ‘why are you talking to me like that?’ after she said he had been ‘giving me a bit of grief’ as they lay in bed.
Suzie was left with a black eye, and cuts and bruises.
However, despite suffering injuries, she didn’t end the relationship with Cameron – who she said could be ‘very kind and caring’ but ‘went from 0 to 60 in seconds’ if something annoyed him.
‘I wanted to leave lots of times,’ Suzie said, talking after her former fiance was jailed, ‘he was really apologetic. I gave him another chance. That should have been my cue to leave.’
The couple met on Facebook and were together for over three years. Suzie says that Cameron was lovely at first, but that the ‘red flags started about four months in’ as he began trying to control her.
Suzie is a single mum to Jamie, 19, who is at college studying for an HNC in Electrical Engineering.
Jamie stands listening as his mum, who works as a tutor on an electrical course, said that her former fiance, ‘was all about control’.
‘It was always a problem if I wanted to go out somewhere without him. I was scared if someone texted me when he was here, at the weekends.
‘He used to go through my phone. He wouldn’t let me have a drink at home, if I was on my own.’
The couple got engaged and were enjoying a weekend at Suzie’s Middlebeck home on November 27, 2022.
They were planning their wedding, when Cameron lost control and subjected Suzie to another attack. ‘We were going to get married in January 2023, because his nana was poorly.
Suzie is a single mum to Jamie (pictured) who is at college studying for an HNC in Electrical Engineering
‘We’d been engagement ring shopping and got the registry office booked. On the Sunday, he started acting weird. He had had four cans of San Miguel.
‘There were some splash marks on the kitchen surface and he asked about them.
‘There was a golf ball in my car, he kept questioning it. Then he said: “Ignore me Suze, I’m having a bit of an off day”.’
Cameron then accused Suzie of ‘having someone in the house’.
She explained: ‘I was pulling the washing out of the machine and there were some blue socks. I asked him if they were his. We didn’t know who they belonged to.’
‘I said, “Are you kidding me? We’re getting married.” He exploded.’
Cameron pushed his petite partner onto the stairs. She struggled with him and managed to run out of the front door.
Cameron left, kicking Suzie’s car as he walked past it. But he soon returned and found Suzie about to call her dad.
‘He went for me again on the stairs. He wouldn’t leave the house. He was shouting at me.
‘He punched me hard in the face. When I came round I could taste blood in my mouth. I said, “I’m ringing my dad” and he strangled me,’ Suzie recalled.
Cameron had punched the mum with such force, her teeth had gone through the front of her lips. She needed stitches in hospital and struggled to eat for weeks afterwards.
She said that she was left ‘shaking’ after the attack and felt like a nervous wreck.
By sheer chance, a neighbour had heard the shouting when Cameron left the house, and called the emergency services.
The neighbour’s CCTV captured Cameron booting Suzie’s car as he walked out, before he returned to punch and strangle his fiancé.
On September 30, Suzie and Jamie took the day off to go to court and watch Cameron being sentenced for the two attacks.
Neither of them thought he would go to prison. ‘There was some kind of miscommunication. The usher told us to wait outside the courtroom, to be called in.
‘We missed the hearing. His new girlfriend went in, I know that she’s standing by him.
‘I was really surprised when I heard the judge gave him two years. I’m pleased. He wasn’t ever going to learn. He deserves it.’
Suzie was too ashamed to speak out and tell people what was happening during the relationship.
‘I was worried that people might think I’m a bad mum if I reported him and it went public’ she says, ‘but if you’re in my situation, get help. The police will help.
‘The strangling in our relationship had become normal. If you’re in the position that I was – talk to someone. If you can’t contact the police, talk to your friends.’
Cameron admitted two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, at Teesside Crown Court.
His current partner wrote a character reference for him, and his barrister said that he had been drunk when he attacked Suzie.
Jailing Cameron for two years, Judge Chris Smith said the domestic abuse had been ‘nasty’, and the mental impact on Suzie ‘has been considerable’.
And the blue socks? ‘They belonged to friends of the family. Jamie had borrowed them on Bonfire night because he stepped in something wet. He forgot that he had borrowed them.
‘The golf ball’? Suzie is laughing now that she has her life back and feels safe, ‘that’s a strange one.
‘I find it on my front lawn and put it in my car, thinking I’ll give that to my dad because he’s a big golf player. Dean was just looking for anything to kick off about.’