An axe-wielding thug kicked his former girlfriend in the head as she was impaled on a metal spike, leaving her with a scar looking 'like a shark bite,'.
Dangling in agony from her speared right leg, Charlotte Mitchell, 33, then felt Andrew Newman's heavy shoe smacking against her head, in an attack so vicious he was jailed for five years.
Speaking of the horrific March 2017 incident, Charlotte, who was living in Southampton but is now too frightened to disclose her current location, said: 'I genuinely thought I was going to die that day. I remember screaming his name over and over again to try and get through to him, but he just looked blank.'
The attack took place shortly after Charlotte had ended her relationship with Newman for good and was the culmination of years of abuse he had subjected her to.
The pair had met in a pub three years earlier but within months Newman had changed from the kind and considerate man Charlotte had fallen for and transformed into a controlling beast who enjoyed emotionally and physically tormenting her.
Sharing her story as part of 2017's 16 Days of Action Against Domestic Violence, organised by The Corporate Alliance charity, Charlotte is now keen to urge other abuse victims to take action and find safety.
She continued: 'Realising this person you have loved will never change is a bitter pill to swallow.
It's almost like a mourning process, but it's important to know that, once you're ready to leave, there are people to help, and places to go.
'I'd also like more of a spotlight to be cast over emotional abuse, like coercive and controlling behaviour. I don't think enough people realise that is a crime too. Abuse isn't always physical. The mental scars Andrew have left me with run far deeper than the one on my leg.'
Charlotte first met Newman, 46, in December 2014 in her local pub, where he was sat with some mutual friends.
Shy, he intrigued her and as they got chatting, they felt a spark.
Going on their first date a week later, he revealed that he was still living with his ex, insisting there was nothing between them.
So, as they grew closer, Charlotte said he could stay with her while he found somewhere else to live.
Despite it being an interim measure, determined to impress her and make it permanent, Newman cooked her dinner every night and surprised her with treats like candle-lit baths.
'I think about the night we met a lot now. I remember not particularly wanting to go to the pub and standing at a crossroads - the pub was right, and my house was left – and I was wondering what to do,' she recalled.
'In the end, I decided to pop in for one. That split-second decision changed my life. If only I'd turned left, I'd have saved myself an awful lot of heartache.'
Still, their relationship was great at first, although, after around six months, Charlotte noticed her boyfriend's behaviour changing.
Becoming withdrawn and mysterious about where he was going when he went out, she began to fret in case he was cheating.
He also became demanding and seemed unconcerned about her feelings, virtually refusing to talk about anything that made her upset.
'He became so cold. The person he was at the beginning disappeared,' she said.
'But, while he was demanding, I never thought he had it in him to be violent. Then, around the end of our first year together, I was cooking him a roast when he started a silly fight, saying I'd put too many potatoes in the pan.
I told him to do it himself and he reacted absolutely furiously, grabbing me by the hair and holding me over the hob.
'I was absolutely terrified and when he finally released me, I ran outside and phoned the police. They came and removed him from the property, but by then I was totally under his spell and he convinced me he was sorry, manipulating me into dropping the charges.'
From there, life turned into a cycle of abuse and apologies for Charlotte, whose confidence was so broken she felt she had nowhere to turn.
'I was so confused. I loved him so much and couldn't understand why he was treating me this way,' she explained.
'I was so sapped of energy, that I don't think I realised the gravity of what was happening at the time.'
Newman monitored Charlotte's phone, checking her text messages and demanding that she delete social media.
On a couple of occasions, she said he even followed her to her then-job as an NHS administrator.
Things escalated further in 2016, when she went for a few drinks with a friend while Newman was at a stag do.
She recalled: 'I got home and was looking for my keys, when I heard a car door slam behind me. Without even turning round, I knew it was Andrew.
'He came at me with indescribable rage. He didn't even give me a chance, just started punching and kicking me.
'He dragged me inside by my hair. There was blood everywhere.
After hearing her horrified screams, neighbours rang the police and, this time, Charlotte went through with the prosecution.
In November 2016, Newman was sentenced to 12-months in prison at Southampton Crown Court and handed a five-year restraining order over the attack. After a few months, he was released and began a campaign to get her back, threatening her family and friends until she agreed to meet him.
Eventually, she relented in March 2017, taking a friend along for safety.
The meeting seemed to be going okay, until the pair went outside together, and Charlotte said Newman issued a chilling threat, telling her: 'Wait until I get you on your own. I'm going to kill you.'
The next day, in a bid to distract herself from his menacing words, she went to a friend's house to watch rugby.
But, just as she settled on the sofa, Newman burst into the house with an axe in his hand.
Thinking back to that day still makes me panic,' Charlotte said. 'When he burst into the house, I dropped my glass in shock. I remember just thinking, 'Run.'
I fled to the front gate, but couldn't open it so, eaten up with fear, I thought I'd climb over instead.
'I felt something catch and thought it was my jeans, so tried to fling myself backwards, but I stayed attached. I was dangling there, upside down, watching Andrew come towards me.'
Once Newman reached Charlotte, shockingly, he kicked her straight in the head, later claiming in court it was to help free her – which she does not believe.
Then, horror washing over his face as he realised her leg was impaled, he fled.
Charlotte's friends, who'd witnessed the attack along with two children, ran outside to help her, propping her on a wheelie bin to help support her weight whilst they waited for an ambulance.
Paramedics arrived, pumping her with painkillers as they cut through the metal.
Raced to Southampton General Hospital, she was taken in for emergency surgery, before remaining in hospital for a week, with police escorts posted outside her room in case Newman showed up.
Eventually, he handed himself into the police and, despite initially denying the charges, finally pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding, being in possession of a weapon, affray and breaching a restraining order in August 2017 at Southampton Crown Court.
Sentencing the monster, Judge Christopher Parker branded him 'dangerous,' in particular to those people who were in a relationship with him, when he had been drinking,' saying of Charlotte: 'She was petrified of what she thought you would do. You were armed, angry and drunk.'
Left with a scar like a 'shark bite,' spanning her right leg, Charlotte still struggles with her self-esteem in the wake of the attack, while her wound has left her too self-conscious to wear shorts or dresses.
Now determined to use her ordeal to encourage change in the way in which perpetrators are dealt with, Charlotte believes more would benefit from completing courses aimed at discovering why they think abusive behaviour is acceptable, with the hope it will help alter their pattern of thinking.
She said: 'By trying to work with perpetrators to rectify their behaviour, we'd be getting to the source of the problem.
'Abuse survivors have that lightbulb moment when they realise they have to leave, so what's to say the abusers can't have it, too, and be taught to realise their behaviour is unacceptable?
'I know that, with Andrew, I'll always be looking over my shoulder, and that one day he'll be out of prison, but until then, I'm going to rebuild myself and rediscover who I am.'
Domestic abuse survivor reveals how she escaped her ex | Daily Mail Online
Dangling in agony from her speared right leg, Charlotte Mitchell, 33, then felt Andrew Newman's heavy shoe smacking against her head, in an attack so vicious he was jailed for five years.
Speaking of the horrific March 2017 incident, Charlotte, who was living in Southampton but is now too frightened to disclose her current location, said: 'I genuinely thought I was going to die that day. I remember screaming his name over and over again to try and get through to him, but he just looked blank.'
The attack took place shortly after Charlotte had ended her relationship with Newman for good and was the culmination of years of abuse he had subjected her to.
The pair had met in a pub three years earlier but within months Newman had changed from the kind and considerate man Charlotte had fallen for and transformed into a controlling beast who enjoyed emotionally and physically tormenting her.
Sharing her story as part of 2017's 16 Days of Action Against Domestic Violence, organised by The Corporate Alliance charity, Charlotte is now keen to urge other abuse victims to take action and find safety.
She continued: 'Realising this person you have loved will never change is a bitter pill to swallow.
It's almost like a mourning process, but it's important to know that, once you're ready to leave, there are people to help, and places to go.
'I'd also like more of a spotlight to be cast over emotional abuse, like coercive and controlling behaviour. I don't think enough people realise that is a crime too. Abuse isn't always physical. The mental scars Andrew have left me with run far deeper than the one on my leg.'
Charlotte first met Newman, 46, in December 2014 in her local pub, where he was sat with some mutual friends.
Shy, he intrigued her and as they got chatting, they felt a spark.
Going on their first date a week later, he revealed that he was still living with his ex, insisting there was nothing between them.
So, as they grew closer, Charlotte said he could stay with her while he found somewhere else to live.
Despite it being an interim measure, determined to impress her and make it permanent, Newman cooked her dinner every night and surprised her with treats like candle-lit baths.
'I think about the night we met a lot now. I remember not particularly wanting to go to the pub and standing at a crossroads - the pub was right, and my house was left – and I was wondering what to do,' she recalled.
'In the end, I decided to pop in for one. That split-second decision changed my life. If only I'd turned left, I'd have saved myself an awful lot of heartache.'
Still, their relationship was great at first, although, after around six months, Charlotte noticed her boyfriend's behaviour changing.
Becoming withdrawn and mysterious about where he was going when he went out, she began to fret in case he was cheating.
He also became demanding and seemed unconcerned about her feelings, virtually refusing to talk about anything that made her upset.
'He became so cold. The person he was at the beginning disappeared,' she said.
'But, while he was demanding, I never thought he had it in him to be violent. Then, around the end of our first year together, I was cooking him a roast when he started a silly fight, saying I'd put too many potatoes in the pan.
I told him to do it himself and he reacted absolutely furiously, grabbing me by the hair and holding me over the hob.
'I was absolutely terrified and when he finally released me, I ran outside and phoned the police. They came and removed him from the property, but by then I was totally under his spell and he convinced me he was sorry, manipulating me into dropping the charges.'
From there, life turned into a cycle of abuse and apologies for Charlotte, whose confidence was so broken she felt she had nowhere to turn.
'I was so confused. I loved him so much and couldn't understand why he was treating me this way,' she explained.
'I was so sapped of energy, that I don't think I realised the gravity of what was happening at the time.'
Newman monitored Charlotte's phone, checking her text messages and demanding that she delete social media.
On a couple of occasions, she said he even followed her to her then-job as an NHS administrator.
Things escalated further in 2016, when she went for a few drinks with a friend while Newman was at a stag do.
She recalled: 'I got home and was looking for my keys, when I heard a car door slam behind me. Without even turning round, I knew it was Andrew.
'He came at me with indescribable rage. He didn't even give me a chance, just started punching and kicking me.
'He dragged me inside by my hair. There was blood everywhere.
After hearing her horrified screams, neighbours rang the police and, this time, Charlotte went through with the prosecution.
In November 2016, Newman was sentenced to 12-months in prison at Southampton Crown Court and handed a five-year restraining order over the attack. After a few months, he was released and began a campaign to get her back, threatening her family and friends until she agreed to meet him.
Eventually, she relented in March 2017, taking a friend along for safety.
The meeting seemed to be going okay, until the pair went outside together, and Charlotte said Newman issued a chilling threat, telling her: 'Wait until I get you on your own. I'm going to kill you.'
The next day, in a bid to distract herself from his menacing words, she went to a friend's house to watch rugby.
But, just as she settled on the sofa, Newman burst into the house with an axe in his hand.
Thinking back to that day still makes me panic,' Charlotte said. 'When he burst into the house, I dropped my glass in shock. I remember just thinking, 'Run.'
I fled to the front gate, but couldn't open it so, eaten up with fear, I thought I'd climb over instead.
'I felt something catch and thought it was my jeans, so tried to fling myself backwards, but I stayed attached. I was dangling there, upside down, watching Andrew come towards me.'
Once Newman reached Charlotte, shockingly, he kicked her straight in the head, later claiming in court it was to help free her – which she does not believe.
Then, horror washing over his face as he realised her leg was impaled, he fled.
Charlotte's friends, who'd witnessed the attack along with two children, ran outside to help her, propping her on a wheelie bin to help support her weight whilst they waited for an ambulance.
Paramedics arrived, pumping her with painkillers as they cut through the metal.
Raced to Southampton General Hospital, she was taken in for emergency surgery, before remaining in hospital for a week, with police escorts posted outside her room in case Newman showed up.
Eventually, he handed himself into the police and, despite initially denying the charges, finally pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding, being in possession of a weapon, affray and breaching a restraining order in August 2017 at Southampton Crown Court.
Sentencing the monster, Judge Christopher Parker branded him 'dangerous,' in particular to those people who were in a relationship with him, when he had been drinking,' saying of Charlotte: 'She was petrified of what she thought you would do. You were armed, angry and drunk.'
Left with a scar like a 'shark bite,' spanning her right leg, Charlotte still struggles with her self-esteem in the wake of the attack, while her wound has left her too self-conscious to wear shorts or dresses.
Now determined to use her ordeal to encourage change in the way in which perpetrators are dealt with, Charlotte believes more would benefit from completing courses aimed at discovering why they think abusive behaviour is acceptable, with the hope it will help alter their pattern of thinking.
She said: 'By trying to work with perpetrators to rectify their behaviour, we'd be getting to the source of the problem.
'Abuse survivors have that lightbulb moment when they realise they have to leave, so what's to say the abusers can't have it, too, and be taught to realise their behaviour is unacceptable?
'I know that, with Andrew, I'll always be looking over my shoulder, and that one day he'll be out of prison, but until then, I'm going to rebuild myself and rediscover who I am.'
Domestic abuse survivor reveals how she escaped her ex | Daily Mail Online
