Trans TikTok influencer strangled girlfriend and set her alight during four-year abuse

Leeds Crown Court heard how the abuse, driven by jealousy, left Lauren a "broken person".

Judge Mushtaq Khokhar told Leeds Crown Court that for the victim, the two-minute strangulation "would have been eternity because that's what it is like to be strangled".

The attack took place in September after Lauren had packed her belongings when told to leave their Knottingley apartment near Leeds.

Lauren secretly recorded the violent assault on her phone before handing the evidence to police.

Videos posted on TikTok showed Hollie admitting she needed to "learn how to stay quiet sometimes" and acknowledging how "disrespectful" she could become when "angry and hurt".

Lauren was banned from using her phone and subjected to constant monitoring of her social media activity, while Hollie also prevented her from seeing friends and family members.

Additionally, the victim could not access her own benefits as Hollie controlled their joint bank account, the court heard.

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Judge Khokhar told Hollie: "You banned her from social media. You controlled her financially. You controlled her contact with her own child."

"This behaviour consisted of controlling who she had contact with, who could she meet and who she could not meet. She had to report to you as to where she was at any given time."

In January 2020, Hollie assaulted Lauren with a vodka bottle, knocking her unconscious and slashing her leg.

Lauren was too frightened to report the attack, telling hospital staff she had accidentally cut herself on glass.

In another horrific incident, Hollie poured fuel from a jerry can over Lauren before setting it alight with a cigarette, causing her boots to catch fire.

The court heard how Hollie's possessive behaviour extended to burning Lauren's child's clothing.

"You were so possessive and obsessed with her, and controlling, that on one occasion you burned her child's clothing.

"On another occasion, you had poured a jerry can of fuel over her body and then you had thrown the cigarette to become alight. Mercifully, no injury was sustained from it but it could have been worse than it was."

In a victim impact statement, Lauren said: "She's left a mark on my life that won't go away. She's ruined me as a person. I'm vulnerable and a broken person and that's at the hands of Hollie Hanson."

"I've finally come to the realisation that she never loved me. The realisation is that Hollie Hanson is my abuser," Lauren said.