Original subtitles

'It's an awful feeling

'to feel how I do about you.

'I absolutely fucking hate you.'

I look at that person and just think how pathetic they were,

how weak they were, how brainwashed they must have been.

I don't want to accept that that was me.

So, we go to the door, and everything is absolutely beautiful.

Thinking, "I think we've got to the wrong house, here."

These videos couldn't have come from a house like this.

Get up! Put the fucking chicken in. You fat cunt.

Pull yourself off it!

You lazy bastard.

This had been going on for such a long time that, you know,

this is who he is. Withdrawn, broken.

This is the father of your children, you know.

You've been together for 20 years.

just emotionless, really, just didn't care.

And what are you holding in your right hand?

Yeah, it looks like a sharp object.

It's a sharp object, it's a carving knife.

'I'm determined to show them...' 'You do deserve it.

'Go on, scrub away, you cunt.'

That's another level of abuse that we can't...

I still, to this day, can't comprehend.

Every time I looked at my sister... HE EXHALES SHAKILY

...erm, she couldn't, she couldn't look at me without starting to cry.

It is the worst case I've seen without a shadow of a doubt.

And I do think, yeah, there's a chance she would have killed him.

Did you buy a-a-any of this?

It's shown me that you can go to a leafy suburb with a jaguar

on a six-figure salary and find a monster within it.

Go on. Mummy? Say it again, if you're that hard.

POLICE RADIO CHATTER

Upon arrival, I remember distinctly there was a jaguar on the drive,

and it's a large detached property.

HE KNOCKS ON DOOR

I'd literally just put the kids to bed,

and then there was a knock at the door. Erm...

I didn't know who it was at the time,

so I come downstairs and open the door,

and it was the police, and they said, "Do you know why we're here?"

And I say, "Yeah, I think I know, I think I know why-why you're here."

Er... PC Holmes.

His eyes were really, really sunken,

like, I still remember he had a white shirt on,

but his eyes were really, like, sunken into the back of his head.

As we walked into the address, she was inside on the right hand side,

she was in drink, she was drunk.

Is it Sheree? Yeah. Yeah. OK.

If you don't mind? No probs.

I'll just let you know, Sheree, just before you go any further, OK?

So, the time is 20:10. Yeah.

At this time, you're under arrest for common assault.

She doesn't give any form of reply.

She also doesn't seem shocked, which is strange.

You'd expect something to be...

"Why? What have I clone? Why are you here?"

There was absolutely nothing of that.

'As we're walking up the stairs,

'she's kind of adjusting her nightie.'

Well, sure, yeah, it's your house, we'll just get you some clothes on.

'I remember covering my body camera, cos |—| didn't feel comfortable.'

So, we've kind of gone up the stairs,

as we've come up, she's got changed,

and my colleague was looking after her.

I've gone to speak to Richard,

which is the first time I've ever spoke to him properly.

As I say, he didn't say anything at the door.

Ancl I remember asking him, "Are you all right?"

Ancl he just sighs, like, he just lets off this massive sigh,

as if, like, the world had just been lifted.

SIGH You all right?

No.

Ancl then I'm sort of looking around,

and I can see he's got a little bit of bruising on him.

There's a few potential marks on him.

So I said, "Have you been assaulted?

"Have you been physically injured?"

Ancl his reply is, "Not recently."

We're here to look after you.

No, but I don't want her to ruin yours, either.

OK. So, will you still be up when we come back?

Yeah, perfect. No probs, mate, well...

She's just getting dressed. We'll take her down to Clough Road,

and then we'll come back and we'll have a chat.

We'll go through some paperwork and stuff with you, OK?

I turned around and, erm...

My oldest daughter was stood at... stood halfway down the stairs

and could see that the police were there.

Are you... Your children's there, a little girl.

Can you make sure your children's in bed, please?

Sol quickly turn around to take her back upstairs,

and I took-I took her into the spare room.

And, erm, she was saying, "Oh, where's Mummy going?"

And, erm, I didn't know what to tell her, so I just said,

"Oh, you know, she's just going with the police for now."

And, erm...

I just had no answers to give her.

Go, go.

Nobody's seen you.

They have seen me! They haven't.

When I shut-When I shut the door and locked it,

and knew that she wasn't coming back,

it was like the biggest weight, erm, possible had, like,

lifted off my shoulders, cos I felt like...

HE SIGHS

I just felt, like, such a massive relief

to know that at least that night, erm, that she wouldn't be here.

She's laughing and joking with the custody sergeant.

She's being almost, I'd argue,

flirtatious with the custody sergeant.

Custody sergeant's having none of it.

Er, are you married? Yeah.

If your wife tried to divorce you 17 times

within a year and four months,

would you not think, "Hang on a minute, I'm doing summat wrong."?

Ancl then it's, "Oh, do I have to go in a cell?

"Can I have a cell with a window? Can I have a cell...

"Can I have the door open? Can you come in with me?"

Yes?

OK. Thanks.

I think I just pretty much stared into space

for probably about three hours, cos, erm, it seemed surreal, really.

I didn't really know how to process it.

I just-I just sat there

and I think I probably put something on in the background, on the TV.

I was just waiting, then, for the police to come.

KNOCK ON DOOR

Ah, you're OK.

If it's possible for a 6 foot man to look 4 foot tall,

like, that's how I'd describe him. He's hunched over.

Ancl he starts then recounting what happened.

Is this the first injury that's occurred from Sheree?

No.

And then, if I say the gates of hell opened,

he just... Everything just came out.

What's happened previously?

And he recounts 20 years of abuse.

'It's an awful feeling, to feel how I do about you.

'I fucking hate you.'

'I always felt that Sheree was a really nice, kind, caring person,

'but she had, like, a dark side.

'She was, like, 5-10%, this darkness came over her

'and, you know, she'd lash out and she'd be angry.'

'What's wrong with you?

'I've told you that because that's how I feel.

'What's wrong with you?'

'But the 90% of the time, you know, she was kind, she was thoughtful,

'she was caring, you know, she was fun.

'She was, like, almost like a perfect girlfriend.

'But in the background,

'there was always the thing that she'd told me about her upbringing,

'because she wasn't happy with certain things

'that her dad had done in the past.

'And, erm, it's quite an unstable sort of upbringing.

'I always felt that, you know, I could kind of make her life better.'

'So pathetically bored of you going, "Oh, I just hope something changes."

'Well, what will change?'

'I think the first time I remember any kind of drunken argument,

'we'd been out drinking, and we'd come back to the flat.

'I remember her picking up, like, a lamp, a glass lamp,

'and throwing it on the floor and it breaking.

'And then she was shouting and screaming,

'and she was pushing me, like, pushing me backwards.'

'I don't want you any more.'

'Erm, the lady who'd lived upstairs, she'd banged on the floor...'

'Get away from us!'

BANGING '..cos she could hear the noise.

'So I'd wrote a note apologising.'

But Sheree wasn't happy about me writing the note,

and didn't want me to write it, and said, you know,

"|t's normal for people to have arguments," and, you know,

"We'd had a few drinks, who cares what anyone else thinks?"

Almost, like, normalised it to say, you know,

it's normal for couples to argue, we've got nothing to be sorry for.

'You had no manners before. Well, fucking learn manners.

'So that next time I ask you to go and get me...

'or fucking do this, you're gonna jump like a cunt.'

It didn't ring any alarm bells, I didn't think to myself that,

you know, "Wow, what am I getting myself into?

"ls this what my life's gonna become,

"these kind of drunken arguments?"

And also, I thought it was probably gonna be a one-off.

I felt like we'd get married, we'd have children,

I would make her happy.

Not a-Not a saviour, if you like,

but I just felt like I could be a positive influence in her life,

and make up for the unhappy things in her childhood

that she told me about.

'Well, what will change, you know, being married to you?

'What will change?'

I remember Sheree saying,

"Oh, I think it's time now that we should try for children."

Maybe after, I don't know, six months or something, erm,

of just sort of trying casually, almost, and it wasn't working out.

You know, she'd say,

"Well, to double our chances, let's do it twice on that day."

And physically, erm,

it just wasn't possible for me to do it that many times,

and to do it, erm, like, on-on demand, if you like.

And then it started to, some things would get-get nasty,

and saying, you know, "Oh, you're not a man,"

erm, you know, "You should be able to just do this one thing,

"that's all you've got to do."

'Pathetic bastard.

'Knowing what I do today, I'd never have married you.'

'The act of having sex, it had become just something that I dreaded

'because, erm, we weren't doing it out of love,

'we weren't doing it out of pleasure.

'I almost dreaded the days when we would have to do it.

'Went to see a specialist.

'So, of course, the treatment which was recommended was IVF.

'It came as a relief, because I knew then that, you know,

'we wouldn't need to be having, you know, intercourse all these times.'

And when it actually happened, you know, it was just complete joy

and I couldn't believe how amazing she was,

and how much love you could feel for something instantly.

So I thought, "Well, that's it now. She's gonna be happy."

'Slowly, then, over time, incrementally,

'sort of the insults and insinuations

'that started to kind of... kind of creep back in.'

'You've got a complete fucking attitude,

'bitchy cunt of a wife from now on. You've had it fucking very easy.

'You've had it very, very nice.'

I think probably things

that probably affected me more than the physical attacks

would be the sort of more, erm,

demoralising things that she would do to me.

So, erm, in the kitchen, we'd quite often have, you know,

12 or more eggs sitting in a box.

And then she'd get a few of the eggs and she'd crack them on my head,

and then she would, like, push them into my face,

and, like, she was so angry sometimes, like,

the eggshell would, like, cut into my skin.

First of all, I'd have to go upstairs and have a shower

to get all the egg and stuff out of my hair and out of my clothes.

I would feel hopeless a lot of the time

after things like that had happened.

'Keep cleaning, you cunt. Ah, you dirty bitch.

'Come on, keep scrubbing, man. Scrub away, you bitch.'

I would think about, I think, I would think sometimes...

I don't know how it could have got to this.

How could it have got from the start to being just so out of control,

and so horrifically bad as it had got?

So...

I have trouble remembering a lot of specific, erm, incidents

when-when Sheree had attacked me,

erm, but one of the incidents I do remember,

she, I think she probably... She'd been drinking,

I think she maybe had a couple of bottles of wine, maybe, that day.

'Couldn't give a fuck. Couldn't give a fuck. Couldn't give a fuck.

'Do I sound it?'

'She started getting angry about something.

'I can't remember what it was,

'it would be something I'd done or I hadn't done,

'and then she just kind of got up off the sofa,

'and she picked up the wine bottle,

'she'd come round and hit me on my ear with the wine bottle.'

SLAM, HIGH-PITCHED TONE

'Sheree...' 'Just fucking move out my face

'and fucking get out of it!

'You fucking ugly bastard.'

I basically just almost ran away and went upstairs into the spare room.

'I took some pictures of-of the injuries,

'cos, even for her, it had gone further than it normally would.'

The day after that, we were in the bedroom, and we were, erm... er...

just chatting on the bed,

and then I must... I can't remember what it was,

I'd said something about what I wasn't happy about.

I think I'd said my ear was really hurting,

and I can't believe that she'd hit me on my ear with...

on the head with a wine bottle.

And then, erm...

she, erm...

sort of warned me and said to stop talking about it

because if I didn't stop talking about it,

she was gonna do something worse.

And, er...

while I was on the floor, she bent down and she started punching me,

and she started punching me in my ear that she'd already injured.

And I was, like, screaming out in pain,

because, er, it was, like, the most painful thing I've ever experienced,

cos it was already swollen, and it was already damaged,

and then she was punching it, and I was begging her to stop,

I was literally begging her to stop,

saying, "Not my ear, just stop it," I was begging her to stop.

And then she started kicking me in my ear, and then I was...

I will have been screaming by that time,

cos the pain was, like,

just the worst pain I've probably experienced.

And then she said that, erm,

if she wanted to, she could, erm,

go into the bathroom, and she could smash her face in the mirror

and, er, get some of the glass, and then cut herself with the glass.

And then she said, "I could ring the police,

"or I'll send a picture to my friend,

"|'ll take a picture and send it to a friend or neighbour

"and say that, erm, you'd done it."

And then she'd say, "And once I've done that,

"and, erm, I'll be able to get a restraining order against you

"so that you won't be able to see, erm, our baby."

And then she'd go over to the window,

and she'd open the window really wide,

and then she'd shout out the window,

"Richard, Richard, stop it, you're hurting me, stop hitting me!"

'Hitting me all the time! Hitting me because you're drunk!

'Because if you want me to be a cunt, right,

'I haven't even started.'

'And then she'd close the window, and she'd come back up to me

'and say, "There." And she'd say,

"'You know, I'm much cleverer than you, you'll never win."'

And then something just changed in me then, I thought,

"Well, there's no, er... erm...

"There's no way I'm gonna let that happen."

So I thought, "Well, I'll get my own evidence, then."

'My life changed a little bit when I was nine when my mum died.

'And I kinda knew that she was ill, that things were different.

'It was just before Christmas and, erm, she was in bed.

'I just remember it being really dark and not being able to see her.

'My dad took me and my sister into the sitting room,

'and then he told us that my mum had died.'

And it was almost like physical pain, almost like...

I can... I remember what it was like, and that I was fighting it,

like, not, holding back the tears.

I don't know whether I thought it was a show of weakness,

or because I was a boy, that I shouldn't cry.

'And then when Sheree would say all these horrible things to me,

'I think I did the same thing.'

I could suppress it because I'd done it before

when I felt upset about my mum dying.

So she used to say that I was like, erm... like a robot,

because she knew that she could say these really hurtful things

but I wouldn't get angry, I wouldn't retaliate,

I wouldn't do anything, I would just sit there.

'And she could say quite horrific things about my mum and my sister,

'saying, "Oh, I hope your sister dies from breast cancer,"

'when she was, you know, wanting to be particularly nasty.'

I wouldn't really let any of her hurtful comments really get to me.

And I really, like, buried, like, my feelings

of, like, wanting to cry, and sadness,

and always put on a front that I was fine,

but inside, I was really upset.

SHEREE'.

What?

YELL INSIDE

When I first came in on duty that clay,

there was something about the station that was a bit different.

My colleagues who were the arresting officers,

they were still on duty, which was unusual.

Ancl there was just something in the air about this job

that really, really touched all the officers

that had been working on it overnight.

So when I came on, there was already some energy about it

that was different to all the other cases that I've dealt with before.

To have the videos with us,

to prove and back up what Richard was saying,

is quite a unique situation to be in.

The first video I watched, I had to pause several times.

I had to collect my emotions, my own emotions.

Even when my second officer came to help me with the interviews,

he could already see that I'd welled up in the morning.

So there was something about those videos that I just really...

Yeah, that I really found emotive, really.

Ancl I struggled.

SHEREE'.

Sheree was already in custody at that point,

so I knew that she was safe and contained.

So then my main focus was on Richard and the children.

We've taken away part of his structured life,

and he was then left very vulnerable.

So that was my main focus at that point.

So we needed to get up to Richard as soon as possible.

Hey, Richard, are you OK?

It's Adelejenkinson. I spoke to you on the phone.

'Ancl again, me and Dan, my colleague,

'were looking at each other thinking,

' "I think we've gone to the wrong house here."

'These videos couldn't have come from a house like this.

'It was the type of house that you took your shoes off going in.

'Ancl that's what we did.'

His demeanour, and the way he was presenting himself,

he was quite obviously, like, a broken person.

Couldn't give eye contact. You know?

He kind of looked quite... withdrawn, essentially.

It was quite overwhelming, to be honest.

Ancl it was a very intense two and a half hours.

'Yeah, six originally, and then we've got another figure, 34.'

So, Richard, throughout the investigation

was saying about how he had this evidence.

Ancl he did mention that he felt guilty about having it.

He didn't understand why he had it.

He didn't want to have all of this against his wife.

He loved... He LOVED Sheree.

HE SIGHS

I knew that I had this evidence on my computer

about the things that she'd done to me, and um,

during this, like, honeymoon period I'd start to feel guilty about it.

And there were a couple of times during that period

when I'd go onto my computer and I thought,

"|'m gonna delete that evidence."

Cos it didn't sit well with me.

I thought, "She's been really nice, I think she's changed,

"she's not gonna go back to how she used to be."

And it's horrifying if I think that,

if I had gone ahead and deleted that evidence now, in hindsight.

He also likes a shirt, does Richard.

He likes being smart.

But as he was telling us,

he would know when he was going to be subjected to abuse,

so he would change his clothes to a popper shirt.

I'm sorry, Richard. That's just completely floored me.

I'm sorry.

There'll be a big, black square there.

You can't see it, but it's on camera, it is.

So don't worry, you have got some privacy, I guarantee you that,

I promise you. If you desperately need a wee, you're all right.

My main concern at that point was, "ls Sheree gonna come back?"

Cos I always thought, "ls she just gonna be released on bail,

"is she gonna come back to the house?"

I thought, if they think it's 50/50,

what are they gonna do about the children?

If they think I'm just as bad as her...

You know, I'm bigger than her, I'm stronger than her.

They might think, you know, I'm just as bad,

I'm hitting her, I've been doing these things to her,

and they might think that neither of us

are fit enough to look after the children.

You know, if someone had been through

the same thing that I'd been through,

however many years it went on, and all the pain,

and all the attacks, all the times she attacked me,

if someone was to say, "I couldn't take any more",

you know, "I hit them back, I punched them",

I could understand it.

SHEREE'.

SHE SPITS

When the pain got too much,

I would hold her hands down, and I would physically restrain her,

whether it was on the chair, or possibly on the floor.

I... I'd hold her down.

And the problem was, whenever I let her go,

the fact that I'd been holding her, and I was controlling her,

in her mind, stopped her from hurting me

and doing what she wanted to do,

she would be ten times angrier than before.

The way I would deal with things instead would be,

my main priority was to make sure

that I could still take the girls to school,

or nursery, as they got a little bit older.

So it would be a conscious decision for me to get myself, like,

into a foetal position and protect my face with my hands,

so that I didn't get any bruises or cuts and things on my face,

so that I could still take the kids to school or nursery.

Ancl he was disclosing all this abuse,

which, you know, he may have felt ashamed of,

erm, you know, or he may feel like

he was kind of responsible, in some way, which I kind of felt

he was alluding to he kind of deserved it, in some weird sense.

But whether that's just because he's been conditioned in such a way

of 20 years of abuse

that he believes that he is the problem,

or that in some way, Sheree is right in what she's doing...

Which again, it just solidified that

this had been going on for such a long time

that this is him, essentially.

You know, this is who he is. Withdrawn. Broken.

SHEREE SHOUTS

Mummy!

SHEREE'.

GIRL CRIES

The videos, to an extent,

they showed normality within a home,

and no sort of abuse like that, or domestic incident,

should ever be normalised.

Those girls were comfortable in the house. They were happy.

Ancl yet, all this horror was going on around them,

and they would still play on their pads,

and they would still go to their clad, and...

They didn't seem distressed.

Ancl yet, what I was witnessing was very distressing to me.

SHEREE'.

By the time, you know, we had three children,

we were married,

what-what could be missing?

What could possibly change in our lives

that was gonna have an impact and make her change?

So I'd kind of given up hope thinking that she was gonna change.

But by that time, I felt completely trapped.

I felt like I was in the situation, and there was no way out.

I couldn't leave the relationship myself,

because I couldn't risk leaving the children with her.

But also, in the back of my mind,

I know she'd been shouting things out of the window,

saying that I was hurting her.

I knew that she'd had these pictures of bruises on her wrist

from when I've restrained her.

She'd said that she'd told certain friends that I'd hit her.

Richard wanted to hide the abuse as much as Sheree did,

and he went to great lengths to do that.

I have, you know, memories of going away to do these conferences

and then having a black eye, or a bust nose,

or a bruised lip, or whatever it may be,

and having to pack along with my toiletries -

shower gel, hair gel- some of Sheree's make up.

So I would have, like, some of her foundation,

sometimes two different types of foundation,

and then, like, a powder thing.

I just think it was, like...

Look at that person and just think how pathetic they were.

How weak they were.

How brainwashed they must have been.

And I don't feel like that's me.

That's why... I was disassociated from myself, I think.

It's a kind of disassociated memory.

I don't like thinking about it,

cos I don't want to accept that that was me.

We'd been invited to a barbecue next door,

and our next-door neighbours, erm, they're really friendly.

We couldn't ask for better neighbours,

more friendly neighbours.

Ancl so Richard arrived with the three girls,

and he said, "Oh, Sheree's probably not going to come until later."

We said, "Oh, that's fine."

Ancl so, the evening wore on, the children were all playing,

and we were all sort of chatting, you know, just relaxing,

and then suddenly, over the fence, Sheree's face appeared.

She looked a little dishevelled.

You know, the hair was in a bit of a mess.

Ancl I was just about to say hello, and she said,

"Get those children to bed now!"

Ancl poor Richard, I thought, "Oh, gosh."

And I said, "Are you going to be all right?"

Cos I didn't know anything at this time.

Ancl he said, "Yes, no, I'll be fine, I'll take the girls."

I said, "Well, look, do come back afterwards,

"because we're going to be here for a while."

And so Richard kind of apologised, and disappeared off,

and it was really when he came back that he started to open up.

Ancl I said, "Are you all right?" And then...

Well, the whole world just... really, exploded.

He was struggling

with the environment he was living in at home.

He talked about that she would drink quite a lot.

I think she'd asked him to do,

perhaps go to the shop for wine, or something, I think it was.

He hesitated and looked at her. Ancl she said, "Right!"

Then she picked up a carving knife and took it outside

and slashed the car tyres.

Ancl there was another awful story

when the three little girls were in the back of the car,

Sheree was in the passenger seat, Richard was driving,

and she kicked the wing mirror, I think,

and she kicked his rear-view mirror.

And then, she proceeded to wee on the seat

and said, "Sort that out!"

Ancl I remember distinctly,

I kind of sat down next to him, and just held his hand,

because he was obviously getting quite emotional at the time,

and just said, "You don't have to put up with this."

Ancl he said to me, he goes,

"But I don't wanna ruin anyone's life."

And I can distinctly remember this, and I held his hand tight,

and basically just said to him, "She's ruining your life, Richard."

She would say, you know, "You've got this, Richard."

And I can still, like, hear her saying those words,

in her voice, in my mind. And then...

Cos I'd told, you know, some people about it,

when I went back to the house that evening,

I felt a bit more stronger, ready to confront things.

I remember walking into the house,

I could still hear Emma's words in my mind

saying, "You've got this, Richard." Something had changed then.

I felt more confident about things,

and recognised that things weren't right.

And, you know, I felt like I could take some control back, I think.

You know, I started to feel, like, you know, relief.

It was such a relief that I told someone about it,

and listened about it, and just...

it just felt... I don't know, I felt relief

to know that someone else knew,

someone else knew what she could be like.

And she'd done that many hurtful things to me.

I don't think, you know... I didn't love her any more.

Not what anyone could reasonably call love.

But I still did care about her.

You know? I didn't want anything bad to happen to her.

I didn't want her to get into any trouble.

I just wanted her to stop hitting me,

and to stop being verbally aggressive towards me.

I just wanted the abuse to stop.

So, shortly after that happened,

Sheree was in an angry state, she'd been drinking,

and she'd phoned up one of my oldest friends, Tony.

And she'd phoned him up and she'd told him

that I was drunk and I was being really argumentative,

and she didn't know what to do.

And she would have sounded quite drunk on the phone,

cos it was her that was actually drunk.

And he was really concerned by this phone call,

so much so that he said, "|'m gonna come down to see you."

So he came in, we were sat in the lounge, and...

You know, Sheree did all the talking, she was saying,

"Look, we're not getting on, and Richard..."

She blamed me. She said, "Richard's drinking too much,

"and it's causing arguments."

Erm...

She basically said it was all my fault.

So we just sat there and listened to what she said,

and then he said,

"Oh, I'd like to speak to you both separately."

And Tony started walking out of the room

and she, like, mouthed to me to say, "You'd better not say anything."

And we walked down the street,

and you know, he was saying he knows things aren't right.

And he asked me howl had got the bruise on my face.

Erm...

Er...

And I told him that she'd done it.

And I got upset about it.

And, erm... And he said, "Has it happened before?"

And I says, "Yeah."

He says, "How long has it gone on for?"

And I says, "Forever, really."

And then he went away,

and I thought, "Well, I'll send some videos of the evidence I've got,

"of what Sheree had done to me, to Tony."

For him to watch them and tell me... I think I said something like,

"Can you tell me if I'm overreacting or if I'm doing the right thing?"

Cos I really didn't trust my own decision-making.

And I sent him the videos,

and then a little bit later, he gave me a call

and said, "You're definitely not overreacting."

And he said that...

that he'd been affected quite badly by...

what he'd seen.

He says, "|'m worried about you."

He says, "Obviously Sheree's really drunk again.

"I know that she's been physically abusive towards you."

And he says, "Things haven't got any better."

And he says, "I don't think things...

"I don't think things are gonna get any better for you."

Erm...

just wait a second. Erm...

So he says, erm,

"I know you don't want me to tell anyone..."

But he says,

"I've gotta do what I think's the right thing to do."

So he says, erm...

"I probably have to do something

"that you might not necessarily think's good for you,

"you might not agree with it at the time",

but he says, "I hope that..."

He says, "I hope that eventually, after I've done it,

"that you'll forgive me, and you'll know..."

"..| did it for the right reasons."

So, that was without your consent he sent it on?

Do you understand that, Richard?

HE SOBS

You haven't let them down, Richard.

HE SOBS

I would, like, analyse the kids myself,

and I got to think, I probably got to the point

where I would over-analyse things.

So, a lot of the things, the behaviours they might have

and normal parents would think it would be just part of growing up,

I can never think that,

cos I always think, "ls it a normal part of growing up

"or is it because of what they have witnessed Sheree do to me,

"or what they've heard Sheree do to me?"

So, during arguments, it would be our eldest daughter,

that she would say to her,

"Why don't you go next door to the neighbour

"and tell the neighbour that Daddy's hitting Mummy?"

Or, "Tell them that Daddy's a nasty man."

And, erm...

You know...

And I would reassure her. I would say to her,

that, erm, you know,

"|f Mummy asks you anything when she's angry..."

Erm...

I would say to her, erm,

"|t doesn't matter what you say to Mummy in front of Daddy",

I used to say,

"You just tell Mummy what you think Mummy wants you to say."

And I'd say, "I will always love you.

"So it doesn't matter what you say in front of me to Mummy."

And, erm, she'd say, "OK."

And then I'd say, "OK",

and I'd give her, like, a wink.

And then, erm, inevitably, an argument would happen later on,

and she would say something to her along the lines of,

"Do you want... Do you want Daddy to stay in the house,

"or do you want him to go?"

And, erm, would look at me and, erm...

Obviously, she wouldn't want me to go,

but she would look back at that moment and say, "I want Daddy to go.

"I want Daddy to leave." And then she would say, "See?"

As ridiculous as it sounds.

You know, "No-one wants you. Everyone wants you to leave."

And then, erm... And then, erm...

When, er...

When her mum wasn't looking, and she'd turn around, and then

my eldest daughter would then turn and look at me

and she would smile, and, erm,

and then she would try and give a wink

to show that she knew that I was OK with what she'd said,

and she wasn't in any trouble,

so that she didn't feel upset-upset by it.

I believe he even told me once,

had she had just left the abuse

behind closed doors from their children,

had she have just kept it separate, he wouldn't have...

he wouldn't have got anyone else involved.

Because he felt like he was handling it.

He felt like he was in control of it.

He felt that he could put up with the abuse

if it meant that he got the family life that he wanted

and that he felt like he deserved.

So he was happy, to an extent, to continue their dysfunctional family

if it meant that he had a family to go home to.

Ancl it was the risk of losing that family

that drove him to collect all his exhibits. He didn't want to.

He didn't want to collect any evidence against his wife.

He wanted his wife to turn out to be happy.

Ancl he tried to do everything he could to make her happy.

They had children.

It was a long journey for them.

He worked really hard.

He had a really stressful job.

She had a stressful job as well.

You know, they were both working hard

to get to where they wanted to be,

but they never seemed to be able

to reach the destination that they were getting to,

and they never got to the stage where Sheree was happy.

Despite Richard... That's all he wanted to do.

Probably one of the most, erm,

you know, demoralising things would be...

...we were in the bedroom,

and we were sat on the bed, and she told me to get off the bed.

She'd bought the bed on her credit card,

and she said that that bed belonged to her,

so I didn't have any right to sit on the bed.

But she still wanted to argue.

I didn't want it to escalate, so I said, "All right."

So I sat on the floor next to the bed.

And I was still chatting to her.

So she's sat on the bed, I'm sat on the floor, chatting to her,

and, erm...

And then she says, oh, she just needs to go to the toilet.

Or she just got up to go to the toilet.

So she went to the bathroom

and then I was just sat on the floor,

facing away from where the bathroom was,

and then the next minute, Sheree was kind of, like, on top of me,

and I didn't really know what was going on.

And the next minute, I realised that she'd defecated, like, on my head.

SHEREE'.

To get to the level of defecating on your husband

and hitting him with a wine bottle at ten o'clock in the morning,

that's another level of abuse that we can't...

I still, to this clay, can't comprehend.

Thanks very much. No worries.

Keep everything locked, Richard.

OK, take care. OK.

So, after we, erm, you know, finished with Richard,

we had to leave him,

which is always an uneasy thing, especially that...

You know, he's disclosed serious allegations to us,

and then we're leaving him on his own,

cos the kids were in, like, school and nursery,

and it was when we left the house and we got in the car,

I do recall quite a lot of that.

You know, it was a bit of a, "What was that?"

They'd left, and, erm...

I just felt relief, really.

I just felt like I'd done the right thing.

I was really happy.

I spoke to Tony on the phone and just told him how thank full was,

and I couldn't believe that he'd done this for me.

And he was saying, "I told you things would be all right."

And then he says, "As long as, you know, you're still my friend."

And I says...

And I said, "Yeah, of course I'm still your friend."

Erm...

I was just so thankful for what he'd done.

And, erm... erm...

The next memorable thing after that

was when I had to tell my parents about what had happened.

Sol rang my dad.

HE SIGHS

Said, "Hi, Dad." And...

He would have been able to tell, obviously, I was upset on the phone.

He asked me if I was OK.

And I said, erm... "Sheree's been arrested."

And he said, "Oh, what do you mean? What's she been...?"

You know, "Why's she been arrested?"

And I said, "|t's cos of things that she'd done to me."

The next morning, erm...

So, a knock at the door.

And, erm, my parents were at the door.

And my youngest sister was at the door.

And, erm...

SIGHS

They...

They were all pretty much in tears,

but, erm, obviously trying not to show it.

So, erm, they all came in,

and, erm, all gave me a really big hug,

and, erm, said that they'd missed me,

and everything's gonna be all right.

Every time I looked at my sister...

SHARP EXHALE

She couldn't... She couldn't look at me

without starting to cry.

The tapes are recording. We are now being recorded for this interview.

OK? So, the date is Thursday 17th ofjune, 2021.

We're in an interview room at Clough Road Police Station.

'The interview with Sheree, really interesting.

'Really fascinating.'

'She was respectful, initially. She was quiet, but, you know...'

She had a bit of dignity about her, you could say.

The first opening question is, "Tell us about what's going on."

Ancl yeah, it really took me back, really,

what Sheree was coming out with.

He's a secret drinker. I've begged him not to do that.

I mean, he's fell asleep with my baby on the chair.

He leaves the baby gate open, which I'm concerned about.

So Sheree's primary complaints about Richard

was that he was unsupportive.

He was working a lot. He was drinking a lot.

There was not one thing, really,

that she said positive about Richard.

I'm sick of him making threats. I've tried to divorce him...

10 times, or 11 times last year.

I'm sick of him saying, "|'d rather f...ing kill you than divorce you."

Sheree did, very early on,

volunteer that there was abuse within the house.

Ancl she said it was more tit-for-tat.

Are you afraid of Richard killing you?

I don't think he would, but when he's drunk, he's violent towards me.

For a suspect to acknowledge in a suspect interview

that there has been abuse, you do take a step back to that,

because we're not used to that sort of side.

He's gone for me

and, you know, like, put me on the floor,

or, you know, pushed me through the baby gate.

She was initially trying to explain that she was the victim,

that it was Richard who abuses her, controls her,

and we've locked the wrong person up, essentially.

He's dragged me around the bedroom by my hair.

So, are you responsible for coercively controlling your husband?

Er... I would think he's responsible for controlling me.

Deflecting a lot.

Really trying to not take full responsibility for her actions.

It was almost like she already had her story in place,

and she was willing to tell it.

But it wasn't the actual story that happened.

When she... When she locks me out, I, erm,

I go to the side of the house, where the boiler is,

so if it's that cold,

it's not as cold, because the heat comes off the boiler so I sit there.

No-one should ever know

where a hotspot in their building is from the outside.

It's a beautiful big building.

He paid for that building.

He paid to live in that property.

Ancl yet he knew exactly where the hotspot was on the outside

to get some warmth when he used to get kicked out.

Have you bruised him?

Have you bitten him?

Only when he wouldn't get off me.

So, along with the audios and the videos that he had,

he also had what we...

what I decided to call a catalogue of injuries.

Ancl you could flick through it,

and you could see bruises,

and then two clays later, those bruises have gone yellow,

but on top of those were fresh purple bruises as well.

It really did tell the depth of the abuse -

it was layered on his physical skin.

When we got to the injury photos, because there was so many of them,

I said to Sheree, "Look, I'm gonna hand you a bunch of photos.

"These are exhibits. Can you pass my colleague, Adele,

"the ones you admit to doing,

"and pass me the ones you deny doing?"

I'm gonna say no. OK.

No.

And she sat there with just a blank, emotionless look on her face,

and she's sort of flicking through them,

going, "Yes, I've done that one. Yes, I've done that one."

And at some point, she goes, "No, he's exaggerating that."

No, I don't think all of them.

Some of them.

Erm, that's a bite - what he likes.

So, there was bite marks, and she said that was...

something sexual that her and Richard were into.

Or there was cuts or...

on his wrists, and she said, "Oh, yeah,

"because I had to restrain him because he was lashing out at me."

That will have been where I've tried to push him off me.

And all this time, I'm kind of sat there thinking,

"This is the father of your children.

"You've been together 20 years."

And, you know, having seen these injuries,

quite detailed-ly laid out to her as well,

that again, just emotionless, really -

just didn't care.

Yeah, well, whacked him in the eye on that one.

Threw my phone at him.

So, that ear, can we just pause at that ear photograph?

So, you're saying no to these?

Erm...

We had a fight this night. Yeah.

Erm...

He was drunk.

She was really, er...

even in a worst state than normal,

and she would be, like, hitting me with the wine bottle.

Like, hitting me pretty much all over my body

with the wine bottle,

so I had, like, bruises down my arms and down my side

and on my back and on my legs, pretty much everywhere.

Richard's telling us

that you hit him across the head with a bottle of wine...

I did not do that. ..and you caused that injury.

I didn't. You didn't?

No. You're denying making that injury?

I did not do a bottle of wine on his ear.

I don't think there's a part of my body

that hasn't gotten bruised,

and they're quite black, dark bruises.

We were fighting, grappling over a bottle of wine,

I said he was drunk enough, and he fell...

there, or struck a wooden, big table and hit his ear on here,

or his head.

Yeah, she could... she could sell ice to the Eskimos.

She really could.

She could convince you that black is white.

Richard is saying that he attended York Hospital...

Yeah. ..to get some medical treatment for that.

Is that true? I... Well, I told...

Yeah, I said to him he should go and get that clone.

Did you attend with him?

Er, no. No.

Richard's saying that you did attend with him,

and that it was agreed by yourself that he shouldn't give his name,

he should give your brother's details.

No, he suggested to do that. He suggested to do that why?

Because he was drunk, and my brother has a drinking issue.

OK.

But on top... But she did also warn me

that if I didn't give her brother's name,

that she wouldn't let me back in the house.

Richard said he was scared of you,

and you told him to give your brother's details.

I didn't tell him. It was his idea to give my brother's details.

To cover up what's happened,

which is you hitting him with a bottle of wine?

No.

She said it with such conviction, it's almost like

she didn't leave you any choice but to believe her.

It was just...

unbelievable to watch and to listen to.

So, Richard's obviously taken a lot of photos of his injuries.

Have you got any photos of your injuries?

I did, yeah. Where's them? Where are them?

Er, well, they're in my iPhone,

and he asked me to delete it, and I did.

But I'm hoping you can recover it. OK.

So, we decided that we were gonna show the video,

one of the videos - the most...

what we would say on that clay was the most horrific.

It involved Sheree having a knife to Richard's throat.

This is exhibit RH-28.

This is one of a number of videos that we've been confronted. Yeah.

This might explain why you were arrested,

if you've got any confusion as to why that's happened. Yeah.

Initially, I played it without the audio,

and this was accidental,

just because my laptop's usually muted.

Do you recognise that room, Sheree? Yeah.

Where is it? The playroom.

Ancl what are you holding in your right hand?

Yeah, it looks like a sharp object.

It's a sharp object. It's a carving knife, that, Sheree.

What did you do then?

I think I went to push him back.

You've got a knife in your hand.

What are you pushing him for with a knife in your hand?

So, you must know exactly what's happening here.

Could you explain that to me, please?

I wanted to give him it cos he had threatened me,

that he wanted to kill me, he'd rather kill me than divorce me.

Ancl I did reach for a knife. And then I...

If he wants to kill me, just do it.

She just went into autopilot, and she said this scenario.

She said, "I was saying I wanted to die,

"and I was giving Richard the knife

"and saying, 'You're gonna have to kill me

" 'because I can't live like this any more.' "

Almost as if she'd kind of planned ahead

or knew exactly what we was going to be referring to.

But then that all shattered, really,

when I played the video back again, but with the audio.

MUFFLED SHOUTING FROM LAPTOP

SHEREE'.

CHILDREN SHOUTING IN BACKGROUND

SHEREE'.

CHILDREN WAILING IN BACKGROUND

Nasty Mummy.

SHEREE'.

Errn, I kind of expected a bit of a reaction to that,

but Sheree had a bit of a poker face, you could say.

CHILD WAILING ON LAPTOP

'How fucking dare you laugh at me again.'

'Nasty Mummy.'

It sounded like you said,

"Don't you dare fucking laugh at me again."

Was it Richard laughing at you

the reason why you went towards him just then?

SHE SIGHS I don't... Well...

I don't know. It's just...

All I can say is that he's been making threats

and I've reacted.

And that's a“ she had to say on the matter.

Interview concluded. Time by my watch is 7:17.

So, following interview,

the decision was to police bail Sheree.

For us to do that, she had to go to a friends in Leeds,

which was a significant way from her family home.

I felt relief before when I knew for one night

that she couldn't come back to the house.

And when she said that she's not gonna be able

to come back to the house for, you know, months

or however long that could go on,

I'm, like... I'm free. I'm free from everything.

I'm just free from everything that she's done to me for all this time.

I'm gonna be free,

even if it was for however many months she was on bail,

regardless of what happened at the trial,

or whatever happened in the future,

you know, I was just... It was just...

Again, it was just a massive relief,

and like a massive weight off my shoulders

to know that she couldn't come back and she couldn't even contact me.

She couldn't send me abusive messages,

she couldn't ring me. She couldn't...

You know, I felt like I was protected from her.

She couldn't do anything.

Ancl when I bailed Sheree and I told her

that this is what's happening and she was getting taken to Leeds

and that Richard had packed an overnight bag,

she turned to me, and she goes,

"Well, I hope he's packed my hair straighteners."

Ancl I just thought that was so weird,

and, yes, I am impartial, but there was just something in me

that just had to say to her at that moment in time,

"Your children are OK, by the way."

She never... For the entire duration,

she never asked how her children were

or where her children were.

Ancl I just felt I couldn't help myself

but bring her back down to reality, really.

It's not about hair straighteners.

We've got a bigger picture. We've got your children.

We've got the care of your children

and the future of your children in this investigation,

and all she wanted to talk about was her hair straighteners.

The following clay, when I spoke to Richard about her overnight bag,

because he said, "How is Sheree? I bet she was really emotional.

"|'m really worried for her."

Even after she was arrested, even after he's opened his heart

and told us everything that's happened for the last 20 years,

his main concern was making sure

that Sheree was OK the following clay.

So, I had to...

Again, there was almost, like, a reality bump situation going on.

I had to bring him down a bit, and I said, "Richard,"

I said, "She's not bothered about the children or about you."

I said, "There was no emotion there.

"She asked if you'd packed her hair straighteners."

With that, Richard burst out crying.

I'd only seen him for ten minutes that morning, and I was like,

"Oh, gosh, if we're crying already, it's gonna be a long clay."

But he said, "I did pack her hair straighteners."

He said, "I knew exactly what she wanted me to pack,"

and he goes, "And that's why I packed her hair straighteners."

So, in this twisted, dysfunctional family,

Sheree and Richard knew each other so well

and they were so intertwined in a really twisted way

that he knew exactly where her thoughts were gonna be that clay,

and she knew that Richard wouldn't let her down.

The most significant thing that came out of that interview

was that ten-day situation between the 1st and the 10th of April.

Ancl that was when Sheree used a wine bottle,

and for what we believe, from Richard's account,

for ten consecutive clays, she repeatedly beat Richard

with this wine bottle, sometimes in front of the children.

Erm... And that's what caused the disfigurement of his ear.

He even used the words, "I thought I was going to die."

He couldn't see any other way that that torture for those ten clays

was going to end, other than his death.

I think even Richard said that he wanted to die at that point.

He just... He was broken.

I pictured a switch on the wall, but in my mind,

I would imagine that if I pressed this switch,

that it would just be a blinding light almost,

and instantly, I would be almost absorbed into this bright light

and I would just disappear into this light

and disappear from the world, really.

There's many points we thought he might break,

he might stumble, he might fall down,

or retract or not wanna go through the process,

but credit to Richard, really,

that he somehow found the strength, really, to push through,

whether that be his children, his friends, his family, not sure.

But whatever that was, he found it, and he held onto it tight.

And, yeah, he got there in the end.

Up until that very last clay, Sheree was telling people

that she was still the victim.

She was attending victim classes, and she was recalling events

that was happening at her home, but she was twisting the roles

so that she was the victim and Richard was the suspect.

Up until the very last clay, up until the trial,

she wanted to control the situation,

and I believe that she was telling people

her version of the story.

The only punishment that we would be happy with

would be a custodial.

That is what we're aiming for. That is what Richard deserves.

That is what the legislation says that these of fences need.

So, we were expecting a custodial,

but right up until the clay of hearing,

I was still not sure whether Sheree was gonna get a custodial.

On the clay of the hearing,

there was so much support for Richard

that they had to get extra chairs in to court.

There was not one single person there for Sheree.

Ancl it was at the very last minute that Sheree pleaded guilty.

Ancl that just summarises Sheree, in my opinion.

When I see these pictures now...

...it's almost like looking at two different people, really.

It's not the people who we are today, I guess.

I don't feel like Sheree ever planned to hurt me.

I don't think...

You know, I think in the beginning, I feel that her feelings for me

and her thoughts were genuine at the beginning,

and I think things got the better of her over time.

The need for her to control me kind of grew,

and I think I was just there for her to take things out on.

I don't have any anger towards her.

Erm... I don't really have any strong emotions towards her.

I guess I hope...

..| hope the best for her future, I guess.

I want the girls to know and think

that their mum is having a nice, happy life...

...and sort of make them happy.