WELLING: Partner jailed after years of domestic violence (From News Shopper)

WELLING: Partner jailed after years of domestic violence

9:14am Thursday 2nd July 2009 in

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A MOTHER-OF-TWO who was terrorised, beaten and held virtual prisoner by her partner finally escaped his clutches when she feared she was going to die.

To save her two daughters from a life with Robert Smith, she fled their Welling home while he was asleep, and ran to get help.

Smith, aged 38, of Queens Road, Welling, assaulted his partner known only as “Susan” over a five-year period, during which they had two children.

At Woolwich Crown Court he pleaded not guilty to four charges of rape, five charges of actual bodily harm, two charges of sexual assault by penetration and one charge of harassment.

He forced Susan to spend a week in the witness box reliving her nightmare which included being unable to walk for a month after having a club hammer smashed against her thigh; having her knee sliced open with an axe; being held under water and twice passing out when Smith squeezed her throat and pushed her face into a cushion.

She was also repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted.

The court heard how on September 6 last year, in front of their daughters, aged three and three months, he beat her again.

When the children awoke early the following morning and disturbed him, Smith assaulted Susan again before pressing his thumbs into her eye sockets so hard she thought her eyes were going to pop out.

Then he ordered her to sit on the end of the bed and not move, while he slept.

It was after Smith fell asleep, she finally decided to escape.

She said: “I thought if I did not get out, the next blow would be my last.

“I was terrified about leaving the children behind, but I knew I would not be able to get out of the house with them.”

She said Smith also hit the children.

When she met Smith she said he had been charming and she did not suspect he already had convictions for assaulting and harassing a previous partner.

Smith isolated her from family and friends and she and the children were not allowed out of his sight.

She said: “My eldest daughter did not know how to run.

“She does not talk about what happened, but she remembers.”

Susan ran to a convenience store in Upper Wickham Lane, Welling, where staff called the police.

Officers found her, injured and cowering in the back of the shop.

She has now been reunited with her family and is starting a new life with her children away from the area.

Smith was found guilty of all of the charges.

He was given a determinate sentence of 14 years, with seven years to be spent in jail and seven on licence.

Smith was also placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life.