From weekly Ocado deliveries to monthly book club gatherings and evenings at the theatre, everything about the lives of Paul and Meena Chivers epitomised middle-class respectability.

Teachers by profession, they attended church every Sunday, where they were popular members of the congregration but behind closed doors, at their neat, four-bedroom semi, in a picturesque town on the edge of the Cotswolds, however, a different scene played out.

There was violence, bullying and intimidation. A spouse being isolated from friends and family, having their confidence and self-respect destroyed, and even sanity doubted. It sounds like a grim storyline in a soap opera. Yet in the Chivers household, it was Paul who was the victim of domestic abuse.

Royal Navy Leading Seaman Simon Smith, who is six foot three, lost six pints of blood after his ex-wife Crystal plunged a knife twice into his back and once into his arm last year

For nine years Paul, a 47-year-old IT teacher, was scratched, punched and slapped by his 43-year-old wife. A special needs teacher at a secondary school, she showed compassion and patience with her young charges by day but, at home, her temper knew no bounds.

And Paul, out of shame and desperation to keep their family unit together for the sake of their young daughter, simply put up with it.

'To the outside world she presented a sweet, professional veneer, a smoke screen, and I went along with it because I worried about the consequences if I didn't,' recalls Paul.

It was only after a shocking burst of temper, which saw Meena swing a hairdryer at her husband, splitting his head open and causing a wound that required eight stitches in hospital, that he finally accepted he needed help.

Ironically, he was prompted by a phone call from their daughter's school - the 11-year-old had confided in her teachers about what she'd seen Mummy do to Daddy and the school got in touch.

'After that call I went to the police station to make a statement,' he says.

In April last year, Meena was sentenced to 16 months in prison after being found guilty of unlawful wounding and common assault by a jury at Swindon Crown Court.

Disturbingly, it seems domestic violence against men has become a very middle-class problem. As women work, earn - and in many cases drink - as much as their menfolk, the dominant force in many relationships is no longer male and some women are lashing out.

Simon on his wedding day in 2010 with his wife Crystal. She didn't become violent until 2011, when she told Simon that she had OCD and that if he left smear marks on a glass she would become violent

The number of women convicted of violence against a partner has increased six-fold over the past decade, from 806 in 2004/5 to 4,866 in 2014/15.

Mark Brooks, chairman of the Mankind Initiative, which runs a helpline for male victims of domestic violence, says the charity receives 1,500 calls a year, some of them from concerned mothers or sisters of abused men.

'Domestic abuse is no respecter of class or status,' says Mark. 'It crosses all social boundaries: we get calls from solicitors, bankers and GPs, as well as builders, dustmen and bus drivers.'

The evening Crystal stabbed Simon, as seen by the wound in his arm, above, the couple had attended a naval dinner and Crystal chanted in the taxi home 'I'm going to make it rain with pain'

After his wife stabbed him in the arm with a kitchen knife, Simon underwent a life-saving operation and lost six pints of blood

Earlier this month, solicitor's wife Sharon Edwards was jailed for life for murder after Manchester Crown Court heard how she regularly beat and belittled husband David, 51, before she stabbed him with a kitchen knife last August.

Edwards, 42, from Chorley, Lancashire, was said to have relied on the knowledge that her husband, whom she'd met a year earlier, would never hit back or call the police.

After his death, his body was found to be covered in 60 cuts and bruises.

There are many men, like me, who put up with abuse in the home because they're desperate to keep their families together

Paul has now divorced Meena and has custody of their daughter. He has taken out a restraining order preventing her from going near him or the family home. He still cannot believe he accepted the situation as long as he did.

'There are many men, like me, who put up with abuse in the home because they're desperate to keep their families together,' he explains.

The few family members and close friends he confided in frequently begged him to get out.

On the night of March 2, 2014, their domestic disharmony reached a very violent crescendo.

Paul was already in bed when Meena came into the room, determined to continue an argument that had begun earlier.

'She ripped a hairdryer out of a socket in the wall and repeatedly swung it at me by the flex, splitting my head open,' recalls Paul. 'There was so much blood, it was like a scene from a horror movie.'

Paul wrapped a towel round his head and drove himself to hospital, where he pretended he had banged his head on a kitchen cabinet. When he returned home he recalls how Meena, showing no remorse, got up to dress for work.

When he told her that he'd needed eight staples in his head, she flew into another fit of rage, and hit him around the back of the head with the cat's feeding bowl.

For nine years Paul Chivers, pictured, a 47-year-old IT teacher, was scratched, punched and slapped by his 43-year-old wife Meena

Later that day, Paul received a call from a member of staff at his daughter's school saying they were aware of what had happened and advised him to inform the police.

'I knew my life would change for the better taking that step, but turning everything you've come to know upside down is daunting.'

Yet according to Professor Kevin Browne, director of the centre for forensic and family psychology at the University of Nottingham medical school, Paul's situation is far from unique. He says that it is time society woke up to the reality. He says: 'In a third of all domestic violence cases the women are violent to the men, and the reason many men don't report it is because they fear not being believed.'

Another reason why violence is creeping into middle-class marriages could be, at least in part, due to the dramatic shift in women's position in society over the past half a century, with most now juggling work as well as family responsibilities, with the inevitable stress that entails, according to Professor Browne.

Meena beat Paul so badly with a hairdryer that he had to go to hospital. Their daughter told her school about what had happened, and Paul was able to report his wife

'Women are also more likely to suffer from alcohol abuse than in the past and that might be contributing to them becoming more violent, as it's a disinhibitor,' he says.

As 6ft 3in, Royal Navy Leading Seaman Simon Smith, can testify that masculinity and physical strength are no protection from domestic abuse.

His ex-wife Crystal, a probation officer, was jailed for nine years last August after she stabbed him in a drunken rage at the family home.

The Smiths married in October 2010 following an 18-month courtship and have a five-year- old daughter.

Although Simon was aware his wife had a nasty temper it wasn't until early 2011, when their daughter was a few months old, that she became violent towards him

Although Simon was aware his wife had a nasty temper it wasn't until early 2011, when their daughter was a few months old, that she became violent towards him. 'She told me she had OCD and if I left smear marks on a glass it would make her so angry she could become violent,' recalls Simon. 'She was very good at making me feel I deserved the things she did, so the next day I would apologise.

'I never hit her back. I would never hit a woman, no matter what.'

It is easy to see how Simon's perspective on the state of his marriage was further skewed as Crystal engineered his increasing alienation from his family, who knew nothing of the violence.

When he phoned his parents or siblings, Crystal would demand the call was on speaker-phone so that she could hear both sides of the conversation.

Simon was too ashamed to confide in friends. Nor did he contemplate leaving the family home in Gosport, Hampshire. Crystal threatened that she would make it 'as difficult as possible' for him to see their daughter, as well as laying claim to his pension.

Nothing could have prepared him for the events that unfolded after they attended a naval dinner on February 12 last year. Crystal, who was very drunk, was heard by a couple, with whom the Smiths shared a taxi home, chanting: 'I'm going to make it rain with pain.'

Ian McNicholl, 53, pictured, is also a victim of domestic violence. His partner, Michelle Williamson, 44, was sentenced to seven years for grievous bodily harm

Back home, after she punched and threw a knife block at Simon, he went to their bedroom to pack a bag, planning to spend the night on his ship, HMS Lancaster, and give her time to calm down.

However, Crystal crept upstairs after him with a kitchen knife, which she plunged twice into his back and once into his arm. Simon lost six pints of blood and underwent life-saving surgery in hospital.

He says: 'There's a perception that men are stronger to put up with it, but that doesn't allow for the psychological abuse.'

Ian McNicholl, 53, whose partner, Michelle Williamson, 44, was sentenced to seven years for grievous bodily harm, knows all about psychological torture.

Michelle fractured Ian's skull, cheekbones and nose, cracked three of his robs and branded his chest with cigarettes, pictured, along with other acts of violence

Having told him she had brothers involved in organised crime - something he later discovered was untrue - who would kill him if he tried to leave her, Williamson subjected Ian, from Lincolnshire, to 15 months of abuse.

She fractured his skull, cheekbones and nose and cracked three of his ribs as well as pouring boiling water from a kettle into his lap, shoving a lighted cigarette up his nose, spraying bleach into his eyes and branding his arm with a steam iron. By May 2008, Ian, who started dating Williamson in October 2006, was virtually a prisoner in his own home, having lost contact with friends and family and neglected his business training NHS staff.

Standing 5ft 10in tall and of solid build, it seems astonishing that 5ft 1in, size 8 Williamson could wield such control. Ian's saviour was a neighbour who alerted police after seeing his facial injuries, sustained during Michelle's final attack, with a metal bar and a hammer, back in spring 2008.

Ian's partner branded his arm with an arm, the imprint of which can clearly be seen here

'She'd told me that if the police turned up to tell them that I'd been attacked due to gambling debts, which is what I did,' recalls Ian. 'But the officer, who saw I also had many old injuries, took me outside to the police van.

'He said, 'Is the person who hurt you still inside your house?'

'I whispered 'Yes' and then collapsed in the back of the van. I couldn't believe it was all over.' Ian was taken to hospital and then, shockingly, later dropped at a hostel for the homeless as there are no refuges for male victims of domestic violence.

Williamson, who had been training to be a drugs counsellor, was arrested and bailed to the home Ian owned, where she had been living with him, while he was forced to live in a hostel.

After being convicted, Williamson served the first half of her seven-year sentence in prison and has spent the past three-and-a-half years out on licence.

Ian, now an ambassador for the Mankind Initiative, says: 'I'm a victim of a crime and no longer ashamed to talk about what happened to me.

'As I've discovered to my cost, either gender can be a victim or perpetrator of domestic abuse.'

And as the number of women convicted of this violent crime continues to escalate, could it be time we all thought beyond the stereotype of the battered wife?