By GB News (World News) | Created at 2026-10-01 18:30:51 | Updated at 2026-10-01 23:42:59
5 hours ago
A domestic abuse victim has told GB News she is fleeing the country with her children in fear of their safety after her ex-husband was released under Labour's early release scheme.
Appearing on Martin Daubney's show, Karen Haynes detailed the decades of abuse she and her children faced and how she was informed of his release with a letter.
Recalling how the abuse began, Ms Haynes told GB News: "It was a coercive controlling relationship, he started out love bombing, the honeymoon period went on for years, I was showered with gifts, I lived in a gilded cage, really.
"So when he realised that he couldn't really control me anymore and he didn't feel he was having enough control, because the children were having all the attention, his demeanour changed a lot over the years and it became really abusive, controlling relationship.
"I couldn't choose what I wore, where I went, when I went anywhere who I spoke to, I got isolated from family, and it comes on very slowly so that you don't realise. You end up being so controlled, every inch of your life."
Ms Haynes admitted that the control and abuse became so intense that she attempted to take her own life.
She said: "Then we have the sort of like the big incidents where you end up feeling so trapped, and the death threats are so much and you don't feel that you have any way of living freely that you end up trying to commit suicide. And that's where we ended up.
"And that's when he really escalated his behaviours, because he realised that I was definitely on my way out of this relationship."
Karen Haynes has told GB News of her plans to flee the country after her abusive ex-husband was released early under Labour's scheme
PA / GB NEWS
Asked how she discovered that her abuser was going to be released under Labour's scheme, Ms Haynes told host Martin Daubney that she received an "insulting letter in the post".
She recalled: "I received the letter on a Saturday morning, which I find so insulting. You can't contact anybody, there's no support out there, it's awful. I couldn't tell the children straight away, yy legs went from under me. I just ran straight into the shower and just cried in the shower so that I looked red faced when I came out.
"And I tried to pull myself together and decided how I was going to actually break the news to them, and the reaction was so severe because we have had to hold it together so long, for four and a half years.
He pleaded not guilty, we weren't allowed to talk about our story, we weren't allowed to receive therapy, so it was absolutely devastating."
On her decision to move country, Ms Haynes made clear that she and her children "can't keep living under his shadow everywhere" and constantly "looking over their shoulders".
She told GB News: "We have to be free, properly safe. And it's not as simple as leaving, and it's not as simple as me being able to safeguard them. I did as much as I could. I put my body in the way of their abuse, and we did eventually manage to get out with our lives, which was the ultimate aim.
"But now we have to have hope for a future, we can't keep looking over our shoulders. We can't keep living under this shadow everywhere we go. Every inch of our lives have been controlled. We need to live somewhere where we can create those fresh memories with family that we've been so isolated from, and there has to be that hope. Otherwise, why do we continue living?
"There's nothing here for us, and all we will ever do is try and escape those memories. And also all the time that he breathes, we will be worrying that he will one day catch up with us, and I don't want that for any of us."
Ms Haynes warned Andy Burnham that there will be 'blood on his hands'
GB NEWS
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Asked what her message to Prime Minister Andy Burnham is, Ms Haynes concluded that he will have "blood on his hands" if he continues with the early release scheme.
She said: "He'll have blood on his hands. He won't have enough resources to cope, hospitals will be overrun, police will be overrun. Everybody's going to be looking back to their support systems - victim support, women's aid. Where are all these people going to go to?
"Probation have already messed everything up, they're sending out the wrong letters, can't guarantee the tags. Nobody is actually going to be there. It's going to be absolute chaos and there will be more victims."
In a statement, a Ministry of Justice spokeman told GB News: "Domestic abuse has a profound and lasting impact on victims, and we are determined to stamp out these vile crimes. Anyone who is released faces the toughest ever controls on their movements."
Anyone who is in emotional distress, struggling to cope or at risk of suicide can call the Samaritans anonymously for free from a UK phone on 116 123 or go to samaritans.org.
