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A Carter County man has been charged with burning his girlfriend with a blowtorch and trapping her inside their home.

Deputies responding to a domestic violence call on Tuesday found a woman near the 130 block of Elizabeth Ann Drive. The woman told officers that her boyfriend, Thomas Neal Williams, had been abusing her over several months and had held her “against her will to leave the residence by using objects to barricade the front door.”

The Carter County Sheriff’s Office report states that the responding deputy “observed her hands to be red, swollen with several abrasions … She raised her sleeves and I observed several burn marks and lacerations. (She) stated the burn marks were caused by a blow torch (he) had burned her with. (She) also displayed several bruises and lacerations on both sides of her legs and on her back.”

As deputies talked with the victim, they saw Williams get in a car and leave the residence. He was arrested at a traffic stop half a mile away.

The woman told officers her boyfriend had used weather stripping and a weight bench to trap her in the house. “Lt. Norman and I observed screw holes in the wall and door of the residence consistent with the weather stripping being used as a locking mechanism and abrasion damage to the door consistent with the weight bench bar being propped up against it,” the narrative read.

Investigators charged Williams with aggravated assault as domestic violence and false imprisonment. No further details have been released at this time.