This week Alix Skeel, 22, told how he suffered four years of mental abuse and nine months of violence at the hands of his girlfriend, Jordan Worth. The fine art graduate stabbed him with a knife, scalded him with boiling water and prevented him from seeing his friends and family. Worth, also 22, has been jailed for seven and a half years. Here, one man explains what happened to him when his wife turned violent, and why leaving is so hard.

We’re sitting at opposite ends of the sofa, watching Come Home, the BBC drama about an estranged couple fighting over their children. At one point my wife cries out, turns away and covers her ears. “I can’t bear it. It’s too violent. Turn