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"At first he was absolutely charming and swept me right off my feet.

"We got married after about eight weeks, but as soon as we were wed that was when he began to get violent towards me.

"Whenever he attacked me, he would go out and buy me a gift to say sorry, thinking that it would make everything ok and promised he'd never do it again.

"When I fell pregnant the violence got a lot worse.

"He once dragged me out of the bath and tried to force me out of the house and into the street while I was naked.

"He then smashed all the toys we had bought for our unborn baby.

"I remember another time when I was eating some food and dropped a bit on the floor by accident, so he threw a frying pan at me.

"I was holding a glass in my hand at the time, and it shattered and cut my hands.

"When anything like that happened he would always say to me 'look what you've done to yourself' – it was always my fault.

"I wondered how someone could treat another person like that when they said that loved them.

"I felt completely worthless and just asked myself 'what's the point?'

"I soon met another man, but the same thing happened again.

"This one was different. He wasn't violent to me, but more violent towards our home.

"We once had an argument and he smashed all the downstairs windows.

"I kicked him out, but he then went and lived in the shed for about three days, and every time I left the house he would break in and eat all of my food.

"He used to light fires and force me to stand over them and breathe in all the smoke.

"I didn't tell the Police as I thought I could deal with it all by myself.

"Looking back, the final straw seemed like nothing big at all.

"I was in bed with the baby, but he wouldn't let us sleep and kept switching the light on and off.

"I wasn't anything big but I'd had enough, so I phoned the Police but he had already left by the time they had arrived.

"I knew some friends that worked for Women's Aid, so I phoned them and they told me there was a room available at a refuge.

"I was so scared going into the refuge - I was shaking and crying as I didn't know who I was going to meet and what they were going to be like.

"Since then it's been fine, although sharing a communal kitchen and living room can be hard.

"I've been in the refuge for around 11 weeks now but I've found myself a privately rented home which I will hopefully be moving into in the next few weeks.

"I'm looking forward to being in a home where it's quiet and where I feel safe and don't have to walk on eggshells all the time.

"I've nearly completed a course that will allow me to become a driving instructor, so I'm hoping to get a job, settle down with my two kids and finally be happy again."