Being in an abusive relationship is hard, but harder still is getting out of it. Suzanne Thomas, a mother of two from Nottingham, is the latest victim of domestic abuse to attest to this sad reality.
Having been subjected to her thug ex-boyfriend’s abuse for a while, she decided to end the relationship and leave him. Upset, her boyfriend Jason McLean broke into her house and physically beat her.
“He started kicking me and I fell to the ground and he carried on with the kicking, and stamping on my head,” she said in a report. “That’s when I don’t know if I passed out briefly because when I went to sit up he was holding a kettle above me.”
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It splashed all over her stomach, arms, legs and crotch. But it doesn’t stop there. As Suzanne lay on the floor screaming in agony, McLean went to boil a second kettle of water.
“I went straight into shock and then it felt freezing cold. The pain was horrific.”
Thankfully the police arrived, and McLean bolted out of the house.
“It was absolutely the worst pain I have ever been in,” Suzanne recalled. “It felt like someone was ripping sheets of skin off me—but slowly. He was in a complete rage—staring straight through me.”
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Suzanne was so disfigured that the police described the attack as the worst domestic violence cases they have ever seen.
“The injuries to Suzanne will leave scars for the rest of her life,” said Detective Inspector Peter Queen.
At the hospital where she was rushed to receive treatment for third-degree burns, McLean burst into her room and started to threaten her.
“You haven’t seen anything yet,” he said. “If you think this is bad see what comes next.”
Before he could do any more damage, hospital security apprehended him. McLean was given a 14-year sentence in prison.
Suzanne spent three weeks in the hospital wrapped chest to toe in bandages and on a cocktail of painkillers.
Types of abuse
Remember that domestic abuse doesn’t necessarily mean physical harm. There are different kinds of abuse in any relationship: emotional, physical, and financial.
It doesn’t matter what kind of abuse you find yourself in—they are all equally dangerous, and if you suspect that you are in an abusive relationship, it is best that you talk to someone—a friend, a colleague, an officer of the law.
Only once you decide to break free from abuse does healing can start to occur in your life.
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