'I stayed silent... I didn't want my screams to scare our children'

A mum has told how she found the courage to report her husband's years of physical and emotional abuse.

Carolyn Shepherd, 38, said her former partner Wayne Wellings isolated her away from her loved ones and locked her in the house when he wasn't there. Ms Shepherd, who has two children with Wellings, said the abuse culminated with him beating her with a curtain pole to the point she thought she was going to die, the Liverpool Echo reports.

Last week Wellings, 39 was jailed for five years. Ms Shepherd, who has waived her right to automatic anonymity, has bravely spoken out about the abuse to encourage others who might be in the same position to seek help. The mum, of Pensby, Wirral, said she met Wellings when she was 27.

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She said: "I was approaching 30 and you know as a woman you feel like you have to be settled down so maybe I overlooked some of the red flags. The abuse went on for eight-and-a-half years between 2013 until just after Christmas in 2020.

"He was very abusive. The warning signs started from the way he spoke to me. He thought because I was a woman I wasn't equal. He would say things about my appearance, calling me fat. He would isolate me away from my friends and family.

"He would want to spend all the time with me which at first I found flattering because I felt like he just wanted all my attention when really he was pulling me away from my friends and family."

Ms Shepherd added Wellings' temper would flare at the most minor things. She said she works in the automotive industry - "a very male orientated" field - so most people in her place of work are men. But Wellings' jealousy saw him get angry whenever she received a call or text from a male colleague, reaching the point where he would take her phone off her.

She said the abuse reached its worst during the covid pandemic. She said she was pregnant at the time with the couple's second child, as well as taking care of their two-year-old toddler. Ms Shepherd said she would be locked in the house whenever Wellings, and most recently of Leeds Street, Vauxhall, Liverpool, went out - and he would call the Alexa to listen in to what she was doing.

Ms Shepherd said she told her mum and brother about the abuse, with the former phoning her every day to make sure she was okay. She said: "It reached its peak the day after Boxing Day in 2020 when we had an argument and he headbutted me in the face.

"He then stamped on my legs so you could see bruises in the shape of shoe prints. He did this in front of the kids. I was holding my mouth closed so as not to scare them." Ms Shepherd said he walked away so she went upstairs with her children. But he soon returned and followed her upstairs where he proceeded to beat her with a curtain pole.

Ms Shepherd said her mum, worried that her daughter had not answered her messages, came to their house soon after. Ms Shepherd said Wellings told her mum she was upstairs but they had just finished a heated argument so wouldn't be available to come down. Ms Shepherd said that when she heard her mum in the house she thought "if I don't go downstairs right now he will kill me".

After Wellings repeatedly denied he had taken her phone, he finally admitted it when Ms Shepherd's mum asked him to turn out his pockets. Ms Shepherd said she left that day with her mum and two children.

Ms Shepherd did not report Wellings to the police until January 2022. She said: "At first I felt like it was something I couldn't speak about. But I've got two boys and I didn't want them to grow up thinking you could behave like that without any consequences. That was the real driver for me."

Ms Shepherd said Wellings got wind of the police's attempts to arrest him. With the police unable to find him, Ms Shepherd claims there were plans made to circulate Wellings as wanted with an appeal due to run on BBC programme Crimewatch UK. But Ms Shepherd said Wellings was arrested the day before the programme was due to air after his new partner called the police on him and he was arrested on suspicion of common assault.

Wellings was charged with six offences including threats to kill; three counts of actual bodily harm (ABH); controlling or coercive behaviour; and rape. Wellings' case went to court in September and following a gruelling three week trial, where Ms Shepherd spent days being cross examined by her former partner's barrister, the abuser was found guilty on two counts of ABH and controlling/coercive behaviour.

Ms Shepherd said the coercive behaviour charge - which had a time period between March 2015 and August 2021 - was treated as the lead offence. Wellings returned to court two weeks ago where he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment.

Ms Shepherd said: "The police were really good. They have been very compassionate and kept me updated with the case. The process was just scary - I've never even been in a police station before so this was the only time I had ever been to court. The cross examination was terrible but I feel now like I have closure."

As well as Wellings' immediate prison term, the courts imposed a 15-year restraining order that will prevent him from contacting Ms Shepherd in any form. She said: "Since we broke up I would be looking for him whenever I left the house. It's a relief knowing I don't have to think like that for the next couple of years."

She added: "I just stayed silent for so long because that was the easier and safer option. The more people who see him and know what he is the better." And when asked what her message would be to anyone who finds themselves in an abusive relationship, Ms Shepherd said: "Just know that you deserve better and there is help out there. You just need to reach out."