I STOOD BY HIM... AND HE BETRAYED ME

Rachael says there’s ‘no way back’ after what happened.

When Rachael Edwards watched her long-term partner, Paul, heading off to his appointment with his parole officer, she felt proud of him for turning his life around.

After Paul Edwards, 38, was jailed in May 2014 for dangerous driving when Rachael was four months pregnant with their son, Rory, now four, she considered leaving her hot felon.

But although her friends and family urged her to ditch her jailbird lover, Rachael decided to stand by her man, determined there would be a fresh start for their family.

‘I met Paul at a New Year’s Eve party in 2003,’ Rachael, 40, from Newton Abbot in the UK tells New Idea. ‘It was love at first sight. He was a bit of a bad boy, but we were inseparable from the moment we met. ‘So when Paul was sent to prison while I was pregnant, I was shocked. Everyone told me to dump him, but I was determined to make the relationship work. ‘I loved Paul so much, and we had two children together, Scarlett, now 13, and Lexi-lilac, 10, as well as another baby on the way.’ Determined to keep her young family together, Rachael stood by her man and after six months in Exeter Prison, UK, Paul was released just in time for Rory’s birth in October 2014. Her hubby promised to turn over a new leaf but Rachael became suspicious when he began to take a bit too much pride in his appearance. ‘I was thrilled to have him back and couldn’t wait to be a proper family again. Paul had signed up to a probation service initiative, and I was so proud,’ Rachael tells New Idea. ‘I thought it would get him back on the straight and narrow. Paul seemed fond of his probation officer. The way he described her, she sounded a lot older than us, but really supportive. ‘I was pleased for him, but then I noticed his sessions having a strange

effect on him. I loved Paul with a shaved head but he began growing his hair longer. He’d never cared about the way he looked before, but now he was always at the mirror.’

When the pair’s regular love life dwindled following Paul’s release from prison, she became convinced he was up to no good. ‘Paul didn’t seem interested in me at all,’ Rachael laments. ‘When I confronted him, he just laughed it off and joked he was having a mid-life crisis. I knew Paul would never tell me the truth so I turned detective and vowed to find out for myself.’

Rachael spent months digging for evidence to confirm her suspicions, but nothing could have prepared her for what she found. ‘It took three hours to crack Paul’s Facebook profile,’ remembers Rachael. ‘I was shocked when I found a string of filthy messages between him and another woman.’

But Rachael’s shock gave way to horror when she realised Paul was having a secret liaison with his parole officer! ‘I felt sick to my stomach then. They’d been messaging for months,’ says Rachael. ‘I imagined this older helpful woman, but instead he was hooking up with his young probation officer.

‘When I confronted Paul on the phone he turned cold. It was devastating. After 12 years together he just threw me away for a younger, prettier, model.

‘I didn’t sleep for weeks after Paul left. So when I found out he had moved in with his parole officer, it was an especially bitter blow.’ Months later, in April 2016, Paul begged Rachael for another chance. Rachael was tempted, but when a friend told her she’d seen Paul and his probation officer at a local festival together, she ‘saw red’.

‘I didn’t have a ticket for the festival but I barged in anyway. I confronted Paul, but he ran off like a coward,’ Rachael recalls.

‘His parole officer was so apologetic, she rang me in floods of tears the next day. Paul had told her I was his mad jealous ex, I couldn’t believe the extent of his lies.’ Rachael kicked her ex out for good and although the pair remain civil for the sake of their three children, she vows to never take him back. ‘It was devastating. He had been living a complete double life,’ she explains. ‘There is no way back for my relationship with Paul.

‘Part of me will always love him but now I have seen him for what he really is.’

‘I FOUND A STRING OF FILTHY MESSAGES BETWEEN HIM AND ANOTHER WOMAN...’