Domestic abuser who fled to Thailand jailed

A man who fled to Thailand before he could face trial over "despicable" domestic abuse offences has been jailed.

Nicholas Cash, 26, was found guilty of offences including coercive control, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and criminal damage in his absence at Bournemouth Crown Court in February 2023.

He was given an eight-year jail prison term and was arrested in Thailand in December 2025.

Judge Jonathan Fuller KC sentenced a tearful Cash to an additional 16 months in jail - a total sentence of nine years and four months.

The other prison time was given for breaching his court bail and breaking the terms of a suspended sentence in 2021 for further domestic abuse against another victim.

The father-of-three, who appeared by video link from HMP Bullingdon in Oxfordshire, is married to a Thai woman, the court heard.

He was extradited back to the UK in the last few weeks before his court case.

The judge said Cash had set out on "a deliberate and determined attempt to evade justice" and had intended to never return to the UK.

Ruby Shrimpton, defending, said Cash's time spent in a Thai prison following his arrest in last year had been "hell on earth".

Det Con Michael White, of Dorset Police, who led the most recent police investigation into Cash, previously said he inflicted "the most despicable psychological, emotional and physical abuse".

But he said it was "incredible" to inform his victim last December that he had been apprehended.

The arrest followed work by the National Crime Agency, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Royal Thai Police.

"It was like the best Christmas present they could have – that they'd finally found him and arrested him. It was amazing," he said.

"We do take [domestic abuse] seriously. We had a young girl here who was a victim of controlling and coercive behaviour and, however she gets on with her life, she will always remember this.

"It's very important to me that justice is served."

He added: "[Cash] put his own welfare before her or anyone else and I think that's very selfish."