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A controlling wife in jail for battering her husband with a claw hammer is continuing her campaign of terror by demanding he hands over their dog.

Tracy Hannington was locked up after abusing hubby Tony in jealous rages over the course of four years.

In that time she also attacked him with knives and smashed him in the face with part of a vacuum cleaner.

Tony says she drove him to the brink of suicide and now claims she is threatening him again, by writing from her cell and demanding he returns their £800 Schnoodle Louie to her family.

Tony said the letter, written “clearly” in her handwriting but signed by her daughter Lauren, tells him to hand back the pet or they will “escalate the matter” and get the police involved.

He said: “I know the handwriting on the envelope is Tracy’s. She’s not ­allowed to contact me in any way under a restraining order, but I’m sure this is her way of ­getting back at me from behind bars.

(Image: David Jeffs Media Ltd)

“I’m still trying to rebuild my life after what Tracy did to me and this has really set me back.

“She knows how much I love Louie and rely on him for company and support as I live alone.” Tony said he and Tracy took in Louie in 2018 after he was bought by Tracy’s daughter Rebecca, who decided she could not keep him because her partner did not want him.

Tony said: “I pay all the vet bills, pet insurance and Louie is microchipped in my name.”

And he has vowed to fight Tracy and Lauren all the way.

He continued: “Her family have even threatened to escalate the matter to the police in 10 days’ time if I don’t hand Louie back.

(Image: David Jeffs Media Ltd)

“The police have told me it is a civil matter and they can’t do anything.

“Tracy stripped me of my dignity, sense of worth, all my clothes, everything.

“The one thing she is not going to take back is Louie.

“If I have to fight the matter in court I will do.

“I don’t have much money but I’ll use every penny I have to stop them taking Louie away from me.”

Lorry driver Tony was battered, ­humiliated and tortured during his wife’s campaign of abuse.

Tracy, 56, accused him of cheating on her and threatened to burn down their flat in Herne Bay, Kent, before she turned to physical violence.

She swung a claw hammer at him and he had to use his hands to protect himself as the blows rained down.

On one occasion she held a carving knife to his throat. Another time, she dug a blade into his neck.

The abuse came to a head in March last year when Tracy lunged at her husband’s stomach with a knife.

Tony managed to parry away the blade but injured his hand as he tried to defend himself.

Before that, Tracy had also swung a vacuum cleaner head into his face, thrown tea cups and their contents at him and smashed him on the head with a tin of beans.

Tracy is serving one year in HMP Bronzefield in Ashford, Middlesex, after admitting assault and controlling and coercive behaviour.

She was sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court in November. Tracy will spend a further year out on licence.