HELD HOSTAGE BY MY EX

Rhianon Bragg is living in fear after the ex-partner who terrorised her was released from prison

- RHIANON BRAGG

Every morning, I wake from yet another fitful night’s sleep and my first thought is, ‘How can this possibly be happening to me?’ 

I am in a permanent state of anxiety and my appetite for food, for life itself, has gone. Put simply, I am living in a nightmare. One I should have woken from nearly four years ago were it not for a justice system that seemingly prioritises the rights of perpetrators over victims.

In February 2020, my ex-partner Gareth Wyn Jones was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in custody, followed by five years out on licence (which means in the community) for stalking, making threats to kill, false imprisonment and possession of a firearm. In 2019, after I’d found the strength to end our abusive five-year relationship, Gareth stalked me for five months before taking me hostage at gunpoint for eight hours. He repeatedly threatened to kill me and leave my four children – then 15, 13, 11 and seven – without a mother. This horrifying incident has left me suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Even when Gareth, who is now 59, was in prison, I was on tenterhooks, fearful of his release. In February, the first part of his sentence – the in-prison element – came to an end. And even though the Parole Board panel stated that it would not be safe for him to be let out, he still was.