CHARLES Hanson’s wife today told a court how she was “paralysed with fear” after the TV star “grabbed” her throat while she was pregnant.
The Bargain Hunt presenter, 45, is accused of assaulting his wife Rebecca every six months over a ten-year abuse campaign.
Rebecca was allegedly abused over a ten-year period by Charles Hanson[/caption]
He is on trial accused of five offences[/caption]
This included putting her in a headlock, throwing a phone at her and grabbing Rebecca’s arm so tightly he left fingerprint bruises, it is said.
Giving evidence today, Rebecca said Hanson attacked her in the kitchen of their home in 2012 while she was pregnant with a child she tragically later lost.
She told Derby Crown Court: “I was in my dressing gown, we were having an argument about something and I threw a tiny box which landed about two inches in front of him and he went for me and got me around the throat.”
Rebecca said the alleged assault “realistically” lasted for around four or five seconds but felt longer.
She said she was “absolutely petrified”, adding: “I was frozen, paralysed with fear.
“He was shocked at what he had done, there was no explanation, I could not believe what he had done.”
Rebecca also told the jury there were around 14 or 15″ different incidents involving arguments or violence during their marriage.
She said the Covid lockdown was a “bit of a nightmare for us” as Hanson “got angry a lot”.
The court heard yesterday how Hanson, who also appears on Flog It! and Antiques Road Trip, married wife Rebecca in 2010 – two years after they first met.
Stephen Kemp, prosecuting, said the marriage “started off happily” but the auctioneer began “using violence against his wife”.
This pattern of violence continued every six months over the “next ten years or so”, it was said.
During one alleged attack in 2015, Hanson gripped his wife so hard in the middle of a row that she was left with three fingertip bruises on her arm.
She told jurors it felt “really painful” and she called her dad in “floods of tears”.
When asked by Mr Kemp why she did not phone the police instead, Rebecca continued: “When it starts, you hope it is going to end.
“He apologises, you think it is going to get better, you have a bit of hope.”
Hanson is charged with two counts of assault causing actual bodily harm and one of controlling and coercive behaviour.
The TV star, who denies the charges, is also accused of two counts of assault by beating.
The star, who first appeared on Bargain Hunt in 2002, was charged on December 14.
Police had been called to his six-bedroom home in a picturesque Derbyshire village in the summer.
It is understood Hanson has since moved out of the house, which he shared with Rebecca, 40, since 2014.
Hanson’s career started in the ceramics and glass department at Christie’s in 1999.
He appeared on Bargain Hunt in 2002 and became the youngest expert on the team aged 25.
Hanson is charged with two counts of of assault causing actual bodily harm and one of controlling and coercive behaviour[/caption]
