Woman Battered With Hammer By Ex Because She Spoke To Other Men

A woman has described the moment her ex-partner beat her with a hammer and tied her to a bed, just because she spoke to other men.

Mum-of-three Claire Harrison, 31, was hit nine times with a rubber mallet – including five times on the head.

During the brutal assault, her violent ex Darren Stenhouse, 38, told her “this is going to end with you in a box”.

Stenhouse beat her, tied her to a bed with security cables and imprisoned her. He said he would hurt her in front of the kids and was going to “cut her until she was unrecognisable”.

Miss Harrison managed to escape by tricking Stenhouse into letting her lie down in her daughter’s room, before she suddenly blocked the door and called 999.

Stenhouse lashed out on March 5, 2013, when he went to pick up his belongings from Claire’s home in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

They had split up in January that year and in the intermittent period she had become close to a work colleague, Damien Selleck, 31, who supported her through her ordeal and who she has since married.

Stenhouse, of no fixed address, appeared at Reading Crown Court in August 2013 and was jailed for eight-and-a-half years after admitting grievous bodily harm and false imprisonment.

Now, Miss Harrison has decided to speak out to encourage other victims of domestic abuse to tell someone.

She said: “I remember shielding my face and seeing Darren was holding a rubber mallet. He hit me once, then another eight times including five times to the head. I dropped to the blood-splattered floor and blacked out. When I came round, Darren was holding plastic padlocks and chains. He said he’d bought them earlier that day to use on me. He tied my arms and legs with metal security cables. He told me his friends were coming round, ‘to have fun with me’. I was petrified. There were tears running down my face. I begged him to stop.”

Miss Harrison tried to get Stenhouse “on side” to escape the beating, telling him she loved him and they could make the relationship work.

She said: “But he just shouted at me. He said he had duct tape and knives to cut me up until I was unrecognisable. He said he planned to hurt me in front of my kids, to torment them.”

Miss Harrison’s children, Iisha, now 13, Kenzie, now seven and Morgan, now five, were at nursery and school.

She continued: “When I asked why he was doing this, he said I’d betrayed him by speaking to other men. I remember lying on the kitchen floor, aching. I wanted to close my eyes and give up but I couldn’t stop thinking about my poor kids. So I forced myself to stay awake, and planned my escape.”

Miss Harrison added: “He carried on calling me names and I always walked around on egg shells with him. He hit me when my kids went to bed too. I should have left, but Darren never hurt them and I loved him, despite him making me feel worthless. He said no-one else would ever love me. People need to pack their bags and leave,” she said. “Damien made me realise that you should never let your partner be violent. I realise Darren manipulated me. He made me feel like I didn’t have a future without him.”

Source: Mirror