18 Years Hard Labour

I married Olly for the wrong reason, which had been to protect what I had worked for. I now have a baby to him and nothing has changed. In fact, his drunken violence has multiplied and I now have to protect my daughter Sam as well as myself.

He's bought a Winchester 5 shot repeater and "I'll blow his fucking brains out" or "Can he run faster than lead" became his party piece.

I lost count of the number of times I was the subject of his death threats. He told my mother she would get a petrol bomb through her letter box because she had answered my phone to him.

When he had me locked in a house, badly injured Sam was screaming through the window "Leave my mummy alone". Olly's words of comfort to his not yet seven year old little girl were to scream back at her "Fuck Off".