2014: BATTERED MUM URGES OTHERS TO SEEK OUT HELP
A MOTHER subjected to horrific domestic abuse from her violent partner has urged other victims to seek help.Cheryl Williams, 25, issued her moving plea after her former partner, Gary Blower, 39, of Dolgoch, Porth-y-Waen, was jailed by Welshpool Magistrates’ Court for 26 weeks.
Blower had been found guilty of three separate assaults on Miss Williams, with chairman of the bench, Peter Swanson, saying: “We were aware from the evidence that these three offences were not the first.” The court heard how he had punched, headbutted and repeatedly slammed her head against the floor.
Miss Williams, who has now moved home to live with her family in Oswestry, said the incidents left her “terrified” but she had believed Blower would change.
Support from the domestic violence charity Women’s Aid helped her after she contacted the police and she encouraged anyone in a similar situation to seek help.
She said: “I would say to anyone if your partner starts getting abusive just get out of there and seek help because they will not change.
I thought he would change but it just gets worse.” “There is a lot of relief now and I have had so much help off Women’s Aid.
They have been brilliant.
“If I had known the help they could offer me then I would have left him sooner.
“You think they will change but they won’t.” Blower was convicted of two assaults on Miss Williams at their home in June last year and one while the family were on holiday near Aberystwyth in August.
It was after the assault in August that she finally worked up the courage to go to the police.
She said: “He would say ‘I am really sorry, I just lost my temper’.
I said I would give him one last chance and only two months later he did it again.
“We had just got back from the club and he was taking the mick out of me and I just told him to shut up and he started hitting me and banging my head on the floor and I finally thought I can’t put up with it.” Miss Williams said it was her own concerns about breaking up her family that had prevented her going to the police.
She said: “I didn’t want to split the family up so I let him treat me like muck.
I should have left him the first time he hit me.
“I was always treading on egg shells thinking I had better not wind him up and I would try and do everything the way he liked because otherwise he would get mad.
“I feel a lot safer now and I would say to anyone if your partner is violent just get out and seek help.” If you are affected by domestic abuse and would like support or help then contact the Women’s Aid 24-hour domestic violence advice line free of charge on 0808 8010800 in Wales and 0808 2000247 in England.
