The estranged wife of former hostage Joshua Boyle says he struck her, tied her ankles and wrists with rope and forced her to have sex during an incident following the couple's forced captivity in Afghanistan.

Caitlan Coleman, 33, traveled from Stewartstown, Pennsylvania, where she lives with her family to testify Friday at her husband's assault trial in Ottawa, Canada.

Boyle, 35, has pleaded not guilty to a number of criminal charges for alleged offenses against Coleman, including assault, sexual assault and unlawful confinement.

Coleman told court Friday: 'Some of the details are a little bit fuzzy, but he was angry over the fact that I told him that I didn't want to have anal sex, which was something that he expressed to me that he wanted and that he felt he had a right to have with me.

'I was feeling I can't do this anymore.I suggested to Josh I was going to take the children and leave. I just can't do this anymore.

'He got extremely angry. He hit me. My face. He was very, very, very angry at me, that I can't try to leave him.

'He took ropes he kept in a bag and he started to tie my hands and legs. I wasn't resisting him. I was very scared of him so I was just doing what he was telling me to do.'

Caitlan Coleman, the estranged wife of former Afghanistan hostage Joshua Boyle says Boyle allegedly struck her, tied her ankles and wrists with rope and forced her to have sex during an incident following the couple’s forced captivity in Afghanistan

Joshua Boyle and his father Patrick Boyle arrive to court in Ottawa on Monday. Boyle has gone on trial in Canada on charges that he repeatedly assaulted his wife

Former Taliban hostage Caitlan Coleman, the estranged wife of fellow hostage Joshua Boyle, arrives at the courthouse for his criminal trial in Ottawa Wednesday

A screengrab of a YouTube video published by Taliban media in 2016 shows Caitlan Coleman, Joshua Boyle and their children during their captivity

She claims he then bound her wrists behind her back and tied her ankles together and refused to untie them.

In testimony via closed-circuit television to keep away from Boyle, Coleman added: I think I might have asked him, "Why?" He explained that he couldn't trust me; that I would leave if he untied me. I started crying and I think I was pleading with him to untie me.

'I was never to disagree with him, even on small things,' she said. 'In the past, he made it clear he didn't feel any guilt hurting me.'

Boyle and his wife were taken hostage in 2012 by a Taliban-linked group while on a backpacking trip in Afghanistan.

The couple had three children during their five years in captivity. She had their first son in 2013, their second in 2015 and their daughter in 2017.

At some stage during the captivity, she also miscarried another baby girl.

The family was rescued in 2017 by Pakistani forces. Boyle was arrested in December that year. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

He is expected to claim in court that his estranged spouse consented to the 'physical, sexual, and emotional' abuse after the trauma of her kidnapping.

The pair married in 2011 during a different trip in Central Asia. They both, he said, had an interest in BDSM and travel

A partial gag order was lifted as the trial started, revealing that all but one of the 19 charges relate to his American wife.

The other victim in the case has not been named in accordance with a legally mandated publication ban.

Boyle and his wife were taken hostage in 2012 by a Taliban-linked group while on a backpacking trip in Afghanistan.

Boyle has pleaded not guilty to a number of criminal charges for alleged offenses against Coleman, including assault, sexual assault and unlawful confinement

Coleman described in documents how Boyle, who she says tricked her into going to Afghanistan in 2012 where they were kidnapped by the Taliban, piled onto her suffering during the five years they were held against their will.

Coleman added that her husband, who was arrested for sexual assault shortly after returning to Canada, had been obsessed with extremist Islam for years.

'I would like to stress, most strongly, that for more than a decade, the respondent (Boyle) has had an interest in extremist ideologies and in the complete subservience of women.

'I have never shared that interest,' she said.

Coleman claimed he tricked her into going to Afghanistan in 2012 by first taking her to Central Asia, when she was five months pregnant, and then telling her they would enter the Taliban stronghold for him to pursue a story as an aspiring journalist.

In late January, Boyle was determined fit to stand trial - though he was transferred from prison to a secure mental health facility for further assessment and psychiatric treatment.

Boyle, his American wife Caitlan and their three children were freed in October 2017 in Pakistan. They are pictured with Canadian PM Justin Trudeau following their release.

The pair married in 2011 during a different trip in Central Asia. Before setting off when she was pregnant, they split up briefly.

Boyle, who denies abusing her and says she was neglectful of their children and him in captivity, explained in his own court submissions how they met online.

They both, he said, had an interest in BDSM and travel.

'We both enjoyed BDSM. We both wanted to travel by way of backpacking, and we both wanted to see the world,' he said.

He contended that Coleman knew about his plans to travel to Afghanistan and that she did nothing to look after the children in captivity.

Boyle even claimed their captors referred to him as the children's mother and father because Coleman apparently did so little.

Before marrying Coleman, Boyle was married to the sister of Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr and the daughter of a senior al-Qaida financier who had contacts with Osama bin Laden.