A property tycoon has been jailed after making threats to kill his ex-lover and sending a revealing photograph to her mother.

Millionaire Ashley Southgate also set up fake Facebook accounts in the name of John Smith to abuse the woman who was 23 years his junior.

The victim revealed how she had fled to Australia to escape relationship with a "narcissist" bully who boasts a £4 million property portfolio.

Now Southgate, 56, of Pickering Road, Maidstone has been jailed for 19 months after admitting coercive and controlling behaviour. He has also been banned for four years from contacting the victim or her family.

Prosecutor Kieran Brand, prosecuting, told Maidstone Crown Court: "Southgate and the 33-year-old complainant were in a relationship for around three years.

"She describes him as someone who has a drug and alcohol problem, which exacerbates his unpleasant behaviour towards her.

"She added that he is jealous of her relationship with her family and found him intimidating, accusing her of dressing slutty.

"If she goes out, he wants to know where, when, and who she is with and it has caused her to lose her circle of friends."

Mr Brand said he would tell her not to come into her bedroom because she was dressed like "a complete slut".

"When she entered the bedroom, he grabbed her round the throat with both hands, forced her on the bed, and screamed in her face, " he said.

The prosecutor told how she went to Australia and on Boxing Day in 2020, Southgate received a police caution for sending indecent pictures of her to her parents.

The victim later told police that in August last year he created an account which he used to stalk his victim, using words like "stripper and prostitute".

Again on Boxing Day – but a year later from the first incident – he sent her mother more images of his ex-lover "including images where part of her breasts were visible", said the prosecutor.

The following month she confronted Southgate about using prostitutes and she called him a liar.

"The defendant then grabbed the iPad from her and pushed her against the cabinet causing her to hit her head.

"He said to her 'I will ******* destroy you and your family' and then spat in her face."

Mr Brand added that during an argument in January 2019, after she accused him of sending flirtatious messages to an ex-lover, he accused her of being smothering and controlling.

"He made out that it was her fault, and caused her to self-harm by cutting her legs with a kitchen knife, and taking painkillers.

"He responded by saying she was seeking attention, and telling her what she had done was embarrassing."

'I am the victim of a narcissistic and corrosive abuse, it has changed my entire life'

On January 18, 2019 Southgate told her that she was not allowed back in the house to collect her stuff unless she located his second phone.

He then accused her of lying when she located it and verbally abusing her by calling her a "slut" and "a loser", telling her she was worthless.

Mr Brand said he then grabbed hold of the front of her coat, pushed her against the wall, and saying: "Hurry up and **** out of my house."

He then grabbed her with his left hand on her coat and right hand on her throat, pushed her into the toilets screaming and shouting in her face, the court heard.

Mr Brand said: "He then came back upstairs, pushed her onto the floor causing her to hit her head, before saying: 'This is what I think of you, you disgusting slut,' before spitting in her face.

"The defendant says that her best friend is the devil, she is evil and he will **** her life up, " the prosecutor added.

The woman, who describes herself as one of the leading experts in narcissistic abuse, later told police in an impact statement: "I am the victim of a narcissistic and corrosive abuse, it has changed my entire life."

Defence Sarah Forshaw KC said that Southgate is a "very successful businessman he has about £4m worth of rental property and owns a substantial property in Kent".

She said that the two had been involved in a toxic relationship and the relationship was not of a "relentlessly brutal man and a timid, terrified younger woman".