'My boyfriend almost beat me to death but I was so under his control it took me years to break free'
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Lying in her hospital bed, Esther Garrity was unrecognisable from the bubbly, pretty young woman she should have been. Beaten so badly she had an imprint of a Doc Marten boot left on her face, Esther’s distraught mother could only tell it was her daughter from her eyebrows.
She sustained multiple blows, knocking her teeth out and leaving her with brain injuries that put her in a coma for weeks and having to learn to walk, talk and eat again.And it was all inflicted by the man Esther thought she loved. “I do not know what I remember or whether it’s what people have told me” says Esther, who has been left with severe memory issues. “But I know the extent of what he inflicted. Sam stamped on my face 17 times. I lost eight teeth, my nose, both cheekbones and jaw were shattered and I’ve got a brain injury that will stay with me forever.”.
Astonishingly, despite her horrific injuries, Esther rekindled her relationship with Sam Farley then 21, even as he served a 12-and-a-half year sentence for GBH with intent for the attack on her. As ITV soap Emmerdale has depicted in a storyline over the past year, the insidious impact of coercive control can leave victims unwilling to leave their abuser.
Tom King played by James Chase has inflicted mental and physical violence against his wife Belle played by Eden Taylor Draper, for months before she took action. Viewers were left in tears as brave Belle finally saw justice - with Tom sentenced to three years in jail for his abuse and coercive control.
