‘I did whatever I could to keep myself alive'

Rhianon Bragg’s abusive ex held her hostage at gunpoint and threatened to kill her

- LEBBY EYRES

Mum-of-four Rhianon Bragg, 48, tells new how, during one terrifying night in a remote Welsh village, she believed she would be murdered by her controlling ex-boyfriend, mechanic Gareth Wyn Jones.

''As I returned to my house on a summer evening, a camouflaged figure leapt out, pointing a shotgun at my chest. Terrified, I knew immediately who it was: my ex, Gareth. He had waged a campaign of terror against me for four months following the end of a five-year coercive, controlling relationship.

For the next eight hours, he held me, hostage, threatening to kill me – one minute furious, the next full of self-pity. I knew he was fully capable of murdering me.

It was a far cry from the early stages of our relationship when Gareth showered me in affection. We’d first met in 2013 after my car had a puncture while I was driving to see my ill father in Rhosgadfan in North Wales. Gareth, a mechanic from the village, came to fix it.

At the time, my marriage was on its last legs, and I left East Anglia where I was living with my husband. Together with my four children, two girls and two boys – now aged 17, 15, 13 and nine – we moved to my parents’ house to be close to Dad, in hospital in Bangor. The farmhouse, which is about 800 meters from the outskirts of the village, is the only place I really call home.

After my father died in May 2014, Gareth visited more. I was convinced I’d never have another relationship and that no one would be interested in a single mum, but he insidiously worked his way into my life when I was at my most vulnerable. Gradually, friendship turned into a relationship.