Peaky Blinders extra, 33, avoids jail for domestic violence charges

A violent and steroid-pumped Peaky Blinders extra who created make-believe worlds to ensnare his victims has dodged jail again – after failing to appear under Clare’s Law when he ‘changed his name online for a few pounds’.

Oliver Cox, 33, met women on dating websites and wooed them with grand romantic gestures – including turning up at the airport when they landed from holiday and proposing after just a month.

However his charming persona would quickly change and he ditched the rose petal baths in favour of terrifying attacks that left some victims needing restraining orders to keep him away.

Cox is concocted an elaborate web of deceit around his victims – claiming to be an actor, a boxer and a CBD (Cannabidiol) company owner, according to his victims. He even posed as one of the women’s jealous exes online.

The thug filmed with the Peaky Blinders cast in May 2017 and was on series four. He also appeared as an extra in Coronation Street and once sparred with Ricky Hatton when he was a boxer.  

One of his victims was taken to France on the promise they were invited on a game show only for it to be cancelled when the host, who was apparently Cox making a fake profile, mysteriously ‘died’.

Despite pleading guilty last month to assault occasioning actual bodily harm after attacking single mother Lyndsey Yarwood, 35, he was only given an 18-week suspended sentence.

Shockingly, Ms Yarwood had looked up his past using Clare’s Law – which gives people a right to ask police if their partners have domestic violence convictions – but was told there was nothing of concern. Wiltshire Police are now investigating.

Ms Yarwood believes Cox slipped through the net because he changed his name by deed poll – calling himself Bart Milben, Darren Berry and other variations of these.

Days before attacking Ms Yarwood, the brute had even shared a post on Facebook praising Clare’s Law as something that not only helps women but can ‘defend men who have been labelled’.

Less than a year before, Cox had been convicted of assaulting former girlfriend Rosie Benson, 31, on Christmas Day 2017 – for which he was bailed and handed a community order.

Rosie Benson, 31, and Jen Atherton, 28, were two of the woman targeted by the thug 

Weeks before attacking Ms Yarwood, the thug had been instructed by cops to cease contact with another ex, Jen Atherton, after harassing her when she refused to post pictures on Instagram of flowers he’d bought her.

Just months before meeting the 28-year-old last year, he had also pleaded guilty to attacking another woman in Newcastle while on a night-out – but walked free after paying a £600 fine.

He allegedly made up a woman named ‘Rachel’ who he would ‘confide’ in about his violence – even making her an Instagram account to talk to her on.

His campaign of violence stretches back a decade, after he was convicted of headbutting a man in 2009 who reportedly tried to stop him attacking another ex.

With Cox still on the streets, Ms Yarwood, Ms Benson and Ms Atherton are speaking out to warn other women so that he doesn’t do it again to ‘some other poor girl’.

Cox admitted to changing his name by deed poll to Bartholomew Milben and blamed his behaviour on his use of steroids but claimed he was ‘not a monster’.

Ms Yarwood dated Cox between August and December 2018 and thought he was her dream man after bombarding her with romantic gestures.

But within just four months, their whirlwind relationship and engagement was over.

The mother-of-two, from Melksham, Wiltshire, said: ‘He was everything you see in rom-coms: rose-petal baths, cooking dinner, brilliant with the kids. And so believable – the lies and everything.

‘It’s mad. I’m pretty sure it’s going to take for him to actually kill someone for the courts to punish him properly.

‘No wonder women don’t go through with pressing charges for domestic violence.

‘He was given a two-year restraining order, but there’s nothing to stop him standing outside my house as long as he doesn’t contact me.’

The hairdresser met Cox on dating website Plenty of Fish at the beginning of 2018 and the pair chatted online for almost five months.

Cox also attacked Lyndsey Yarwood, 35, but was only given an 18-week suspended sentence 

They made plans to meet up, but Ms Yarwood was too nervous to go through with it, until one day, when she had just arrived back from a holiday, he was waiting in the arrivals hall to surprise her.

She said: ‘When we were chatting initially, he seemed really nice. We arranged to meet a few times but I chickened out because I was nervous.

‘We eventually met on 17 August last year. We’d talked loads that week because I was on holiday in Gran Canaria.

‘He actually turned up at Bristol Airport to surprise me when I got home.

‘The next day at work he sent me a big bunch of flowers and he came to meet me at mine. He never left.’

Just over a month after meeting face-to-face, the loved-up pair went on a day trip to London.

In an unexpected turn, Cox proposed while they were on the Southbank Starflyer ride.

Ms Yarwood said: ‘We went on this swing ride and while up in the air he proposed to me.

‘I was really shocked, it was absolutely crazy, but I said yes because I really, really liked him. I was caught up in the moment. Everything was great then.’

But their newly-engaged bliss quickly soured.

Ms Yarwood said: ‘One day my ex, or so Ollie said, started messaging him on social media, threatening him, threatening me.

‘I had panic attacks, but Ollie was sticking up for me by sending him messages back.

‘I later found out he was messaging himself via a fake account. He’d set up a fake account just to show me – it was like trauma bonding.

‘We then had an engagement party. I did have a brilliant time at the party. I had a girls’ night out, basically.

‘We went back home and I woke up in the middle of night with him right next to my face.

What is Clare’s Law? How you can find out your partner’s domestic violence history, thanks to father’s campaign

Clare Wood, 36, was strangled by an ex

Clare’s Law was created in 2014 following a campaign by Michael Brown, whose daughter was murdered by her ex-boyfriend.

The initiative, officially called the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme, was designed to provide people with information that may protect them from a potentially abusive situation.

The scheme allows the police to disclose information about a partner’s previous history of domestic violence or violent acts.

Clare Wood, 36, was strangled and set on fire by her ex-boyfriend George Appleton at her home in Salford, Greater Manchester, in February 2009.

The mother-of-one had met Appleton on Facebook, unaware of his horrific history of violence against women, including repeated harassment, threats and the kidnapping at knifepoint of one of his ex-girlfriends.

‘His face had changed. He looked so angry and frightening. He grabbed my wrist and started accusing me of cheating on him.

‘He was going through my phone calling me a slag and his voice had changed.

‘He made me go downstairs where he went absolutely mental and smashed up his phone. I went to bed sobbing.’

The next morning Cox suggested he could not remember anything about the night before, Ms Yarwood said.

She continued: ‘He said “oh my God, I’m so sorry”. I believed that he just didn’t remember. That was the first instance that frightened me.’

During a night out for his birthday in December 2018, the couple began rowing and Cox became furious, claiming Ms Yarwood had ‘ruined his birthday’.

Back at the hotel, Cox grabbed Ms Yarwood and attacked her, leaving her with two black eyes and bruises to her body.

She claims he bought her a cold pack of bacon to put on her face to try to help the bruising.

The next day, Ms Yarwood decided enough was enough and fled Cox, returning to her mum’s.

She is furious that after a warning from his ex that he had a history, her request for information on his background from police using Clare’s Law failed her.

‘I’ve no idea why he didn’t come up on Clare’s Law,’ she said. ‘He managed to get through somehow. The amount of phone calls I had to make was unbelievable.

‘I think with Clare’s Law, every single recorded name needs to be linked to the same person.

‘It costs £36 [or less] to change your name by deed poll. There needs to be a register for offenders that people can just go on.’

Now, she is urging women to think with their heads, not their hearts, when it comes to domestic violence.

She said: ‘The hardest thing for women in this situation is you think with your heart.

‘I just pray the next victim doesn’t fall for his conman ways his sob stories. I hope enough people see his face and see what he’s capable of.’

While Ms Yarwood is Cox’s latest victim, the lout has a history of attacking women.

The year before attacking her, Cox was found guilty of assault by beating and given 100 hours of community service and a restraining order preventing him from contacting ex-girlfriend Rosie Benson.

Ms Benson met Cox on Facebook in 2016 but after dating him for 18 months they broke up – however she says he continued to turn up at her house.

She claims she would find him sleeping in her outside toilet building or in his car and he even faked seizures and pretended to have been attacked for sympathy.

When she allowed him into her house to have dinner and stay the night on Christmas Day 2016, Cox unleashed a vicious assault when she rejected his advances.

Ms Benson, from Bolton, Lancashire, said: ‘It’s been hell.

‘The restraining order runs out in September this year. I’m expecting to hear from him again.

‘I’m worried he’ll just move again to a different area and do it again to another poor girl.’

Jen Atherton considers herself one of the ‘lucky ones’ as she was not attacked by Cox – though Merseyside Police still told him to stop any further contact with her.

The pair had only started speaking on Facebook a week before, but when Ms Atherton touched down at Manchester Airport in July last year he was waiting, like he did with Lyndsey, to surprise her.

However the romantic side soon faded and Ms Atherton claims Cox turned angry when she failed to post pictures of flowers he had bought her on Instagram.

Even after they broke up, Cox would not leave her alone and she was forced to contact the police to mediate the return of shoes he had left behind, who asked him to leave her alone.

Ms Atherton, from Wirral, Merseyside, said: ‘I got away at the right time. I saw that he’d got with Lyndsey very shortly after and I thought I should tell her, but I worried he’d pursue me.’

Cox said he was ‘mortified’ by what had happened but denied treating women badly – despite acknowledging the convictions.

He denied creating fake LinkedIn profiles to pose as the game show producers but admitted to having ‘a number of’ Facebook profiles under various names.

Cox said: ‘[I changed my name to Bartholomew] by deed poll.

‘It was for a fresh start and a sign of a new me, but I did it at a time when I was very confused about myself and I didn’t have all my diagnoses.

‘What happened that night [with Lyndsey] is disgusting and shouldn’t have happened. It ruined what could have been a brilliant relationship.

‘I ain’t a monster. I’ve had some serious problems unfortunately, when I’ve had a drug addiction and took steroids.’

A spokesperson for Wiltshire Police said: ‘This case has been referred to our Professional Standards Department and a review is currently ongoing to determine what happened in this case and why a disclosure was not made. Due to this investigation, it would be inappropriate to comment further.’