Court told how dad tried to rip baby from womb

The woman was aged just 14 when she first met the married dad of two. She went to live with him after escaping the clutches of her father who had sexually abused her.

She was 15 when she first slept with the man, who is now aged 50, after he told her she was “pretty” and that he did not love his wife.

Southampton Crown Court heard how the pair, who cannot be named for legal reasons, went on to have seven children – one of whom was stillborn just days after the man is claimed to have carried out an horrific assault on her, having allegedly drugged her with Prozac.

Southampton Crown court heard the woman, now 34, is alleged to have endured a catalogue of appalling abuse while living with the “dominant and controlling” man who had “conditioned” her to believe the treatment she received was normal. The alleged abuse included: n Slapping and punching her and regularly leaving her with black eyes.

• Making her stand in the corner of a room for hours.
• Not letting her go out alone.
• Using a wooden slat from a bunk bed to beat her round the head days before she gave birth.
• Using his belt to assault her.
• Demanding sex every day – and having it whether she agreed or not.
• Using objects like a knife handle, bottle and screwdriver to indecently assault her.

Prosecutor Nick Tucker told the court how in 2006 the woman had been seven months pregnant with their fifth child – a son – when he went mad and began “ranting and raving” that the baby was not his.

He told jurors how he forced his partner to swallow 15 Prozac tablets before beating her, hitting her around the face and dragging her on to the bed.

Mr Tucker said: “What happened next is fairly gruesome.”

He then described how the man put his hands around her throat and attempted to “manually remove the baby”. He then allegedly began punching her in the stomach and hitting her round the face.

The court was told how within days the woman became concerned for the welfare of her unborn child which she couldn’t feel moving inside her. When she began suffering contractions he refused to let her go to hospital.

She gave birth alone on the bathroom floor, while he sat downstairs. The baby boy was dead.

Mr Tucker told jurors that the stillbirth was the man’s “expressed and manifest intention” and he later refused permission for a post-mortem because “he no doubt feared that it might implicate him in the child’s death”.

After returning from hospital, he accused her of murdering their baby and when she argued she was punished – beaten with a belt that left buckle marks across her back.

Neither attended the baby boy’s funeral after he decided they should not, the court was told.

Two days after the death, he allegedly raped her while she lay crying. In the year that followed the depraved behaviour continued and he hacked off all her hair with clippers.

On another occasion he held her head underwater in a fish tank and as she began to panic that she was going to drown she suffered a deep cut to her head and was knocked out.

The court heard how police became involved in September 2007, when the woman was pregnant again and he once again threatened to remove the baby “using weapons or whatever it took”.

She went to police and was rehoused with her children in a single room but went back to him. In January 2008, he punched her when she was eight months pregnant, and promised to put her in hospital.

Mr Tucker told how the man had rained down punches on her face and stomach and kept shouting he wanted the baby to be born dead.

The threats were heard by their daughter who called police from the upstairs of their Shirley home. They forced their way in and found the woman heavily bleeding and losing consciousness and he was arrested.

In May that year the man was jailed for inflicting grievous bodily harm on the woman.

The new allegations were only made against him in the months that followed when she finally confessed to health professionals who called police.

Proceeding