The former husband of ITV weather presenter Ruth Dodsworth once sent a disturbing image to her children amid his campaign of abuse.
Nightclub owner Jonathan Wignall has been refused early home release, but Ruth is determined to look on the positive side ahead of his release later this year.
Wignall was sentenced to three years in prison last April for stalking and coercive control.
He had subjected Ruth to a nine-year campaign of abuse.
At one point, he sent a message to her children in an attempt to manipulate them which showed an image of Ruth in hospital and the text: “This is what it looks like when you don’t want your children anymore.”
(Image: PA)
Ruth said: “Three years ago I was taken into hospital. He photographed everything. I never knew why. After he was arrested months later this is the message he sent my children. He couldn’t manipulate me anymore. So he tried to manipulate them.”
On the show, Ruth discusses how her children’s fears for her safety made her realise Wignall’s behaviour was not normal.
She said: “I had no idea that the threats and manipulation my ex-husband used for almost a decade were actually a pattern of criminal behaviour.
(Image: Mark Lewis)
“He would call me dozens of times a day, wanting to know where I was and who I was with. He would check my phone and even delete contacts from it. He would turn up at my workplace or insist that I leave the studio to eat lunch with him in his car.”
Ruth added: “It wasn’t until my own children began to fear for my safety that I realised what was going on wasn’t normal. In October 2019, I finally called the police and my then-husband was arrested.
“My ex-husband was jailed for just three years and nine months, but could be released later this year after serving less than half of his sentence – I can’t pretend I’m not scared, but I am trying to stay positive.”
(Image: Twitter/ @Ruth_ITV)
Ruth, who has since remarried, is exploring the abusive marriage in a new TV programme on Thursday night (May 5), as she is learning to live her life again and has a burning desire to use her case to help others.
Footage in ITV Tonight’s Controlled by My Partner? The Hidden Abuse shows Jonathan shouting at his ex-wife the moment he was arrested, and includes input from daughter Grace.
Ahead of the documentary being aired, Ruth spoke out about his release later this year.
She said: “I still wrestle with the whole idea that this man I spent a long time with, 20 years of my life, is in prison. I never set out for that to happen. And in fairness to the police, they’ve pointed out that I haven’t put him there. He’s put himself in there with his behaviour.
(Image: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
“My fear is that when he was initially sentenced, the judge told him ‘You’re a danger to your ex-wife and children and you are evil’. How much will a year behind bars have changed this man who has lived his whole life showing these patterns of behaviour? I’d like to think that things have changed, but he’d never shown any remorse.
“And so my worry is that he will come out a far more dangerous person than he was when he went in and I’m really scared about him coming out. But I want to tell anyone in a similar situation, you can have a happy life after.”
Ruth’s 18-year-old daughter, Grace, appears in the programme and says: “This was our reality, this was our lives, it was normal for us. And then all of a sudden we’re having all these professionals telling us that’s not right, and everything we’ve known is pretty much gone.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
