'It's an awful feeling
'to feel how I do about you.
'I absolutely f*cking 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 f*cking chicken in.
You fat c**t.
Pull yourself off it!
You lazy b*stard.
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Withdrawn, broken.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 c**t.'
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 k*lled 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 as*ault.
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 f*cking 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, f*cking learn manners.
'So that next time
I ask you to go and get me...
'or f*cking do this,
you're gonna jump like a c**t.'
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 b*stard.
'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 f*cking attitude,
'bitchy c**t of a wife from now on.
You've had it f*cking 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 c**t.
Ah, you dirty b*tch.
'Come on, keep scrubbing, man.
Scrub away, you b*tch.'
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 f*ck. Couldn't give
a f*ck. Couldn't give a f*ck.
'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 f*cking move out my face
'and f*cking get out of it!
'You f*cking ugly b*stard.'
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 c**t, 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 a*usive 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 k*ll 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 k*lling 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 k*ll me,
he'd rather k*ll me than divorce me.
Ancl I did reach for a knife.
And then I...
If he wants to k*ll 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 k*ll 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 f*cking dare you
laugh at me again.'
'Nasty Mummy.'
It sounded like you said,
"Don't you dare
f*cking 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
a*usive 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 t*rture 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.
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My Wife, My ab*ser: The Secret Footage (2024)
Moderators: Maskath3, GabrielAlejo2341, sidolanters, Maskath3, sidolanters, GabrielAlejo2341