A man who was said to have subjected his victim to a campaign of physical, sexual and emotional abuse was likened to Jekyll and Hyde. 

Alexandru Stan, 33, was yesterday warned he faced jail after jurors at Swindon Crown Court acquitted him of two charges of rape but found him guilty of controlling behaviour. He had earlier admitted an assault. 

Remanding him in custody, Recorder Ben Compton QC said: “I am quite satisfied these are serious matters that I need to deal with and a custodial sentence is inevitable.” 

During the trial, it was claimed that Romanian national Stan forced his female victim to have sex on a number of occasions – usually after they had argued. 

One allegation was that Stan, who had been drinking plum liqueur with his friend on September 28, 2019, slapped the woman. She told jurors he assaulted her again and she fell unconscious but woke to find him putting food in her mouth. 

Two months later, in early November, she said he banged on the door of her Swindon flat. She locked herself in the bathroom and called police, jurors heard. 

Two officers taking Stan to Gablecross police station claimed he said: “She will pay for this.” Stan denied it. He was breathalysed at the police station and found to be the equivalent of twice the drink drive limit. 

Tom Wilkins, prosecuting suggested Stan had a split character. He said: “I don’t know the Romanian for Mr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, but quite clearly, you may think having heard all the evidence, there are two sides to the defendant’s character.” 

The prosecutor added: “The best evidence of where the truth lies in respect of the rape allegation is how the defendant behaved once he knew that he had been accused of the crime of rape; perhaps one of the most abhorrent offences that you can be accused of if untrue. 

“Now, if you were falsely accused, members of the jury, of a very serious, unpleasant offence like rape, how would you behave? 

“Bearing in mind it is an untrue, false allegation, you immediately cease and sever all contact with the person making that allegation. The scales fall from your eyes.” 

What you would not do – as Stan did – was call repeatedly, email and leave messages protesting your love, Mr Wilkins said. On Boxing Day 2019, he called her a number of times and ended up getting arrested for breaching his police bail. In one message translated for Wiltshire Police, he compared himself to an “empty eyed skeleton”. 

Stan, of Rodbourne Road, denied two counts of rape and an allegation of coercive and controlling behaviour. He pleaded guilty on the first day of his trial to causing actual bodily harm.

In his closing speech, Michael Hall, defending, pointed to inconsistencies between the complainant’s remarks to the police and others. 

He questioned her account of being forced to have sex, as she said she had been on top of the defendant during these sexual encounters.

The barrister also asked the jurors to keep in mind the high burden of proof required for them to find the charges proven. 

“These are incredibly easy allegations to make and hugely difficult allegations to refute, aren’t them?” he said. “How do you prove a negative? How do you prove none of this happened? Many of the allegations, particularly the rapes, are very vague, aren’t they? How do you prove that didn’t happen? 

“It is very easy to make and very hard to refute and that’s why you have such a high burden of proof.”

Stan will be sentenced on a date to be fixed.