'He was the perfect man. But when I found out his secret he flipped'

When Rachel first met her "charming" ex-boyfriend at a house party as a teenager he seemed like the perfect man. They began dating, and at first, everything seemed great.

But after a few months the fairy-tale he'd spun began to unravel. Rachel, which isn't her real name, started noticing his "spiteful" and "narcissistic" traits. He isolated her from her family, and stopped her speaking to her young daughter - who lived apart from her.

Then, around a year into their relationship, the physical abuse started. He would go missing for days at a time, and giving the mum-of-one reason to suspect he'd been cheating on her.

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But when she questioned him about it, his reaction was terrifying. "He would push me into things, slap me, and broke three of my phones in six months," Rachel said.

"When it wasn't physical it was emotional. He would make snide remarks saying nobody liked me, and that nobody wanted me. It was just narcissistic behaviour, saying I was never going to find anyone like him."

At the end of her tether, Rachel broke up with him. But, a couple of years later, when the coronavirus pandemic hit, Rachel recalled how her ex 'wormed his way' back into her life, and the pair agreed to move in together.

This time round, the abuse got worse. She described feeling "suicidal" due to the trauma, and the violence became so bad, she feared he would kill her.

Domestic abuse isn’t always physical. Coercive control is an act or a pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation and intimidation or other abuse that is used to harm, punish, or frighten their victim.

Common signs of controlling and coercive behaviour include:• Isolating you from friends and