'I never thought it would happen to me - but he would become pure evil' - Domestic abuse victim shares horrific ordeal

Those are the words of a woman in her 20s who has chosen to speak to the Express & Star to share her story about domestic abuse.

Julie Winters (not her real name) chose to share her story for White Ribbon Day, which marked the beginning of 16 days of campaigning to prevent domestic violence cases against women living in the UK by engaging men and boys to hold themselves accountable.

While the mother-of-one is no longer with her abuser, she wished to remain anonymous for the safety of herself and her child.

"I don't think anyone thinks they will be a victim. I never really knew anyone who had experienced it, so I didn't know the signs," she said.

"When we first got together, it was great, he was always really nice. But looking back, I can see he was being abusive from the start.

Julie first met her child's father while they were both still at school, quickly building a five-year relationship that would sadly leave her experiencing domestic violence and threats against her life.

She said: "He didn't really like me having male friends and he would get jealous, but I thought that was just normal relationship behaviour.

"It wasn't until years later that he started to get bad - he eventually just turned pure evil, he would scream and yell, he would hit me and apologise afterwards."

After an incident involving her former partner scalding her with boiling water, Julie left. However, she now says that had she seen the warning signs earlier, her child wouldn't have had to witness what happened.