HOW TO BEAT

Women ‘must be alert to the danger signs’

EXPERTS have warned of the danger signs women should look out for to avoid becoming a “gaslighting” victim.

Strictly Come Dancing cheat Seann Walsh, 32, was last week accused of using the form of abuse on his now ex-girlfriend, after he was caught kissing his dance partner Katya Jones, 29.

The comedian’s ex Rebecca Humphries said he had branded her “nuts” when she voiced her concerns about his closeness to the sexy pro.

Dumping him, she wrote: “He aggressively and repeatedly called me a psycho/nuts/mental. As he has done countless times throughout our relationship when I’ve questioned his inappropriate/hurtful behaviour.

“I have a voice and will use it by saying this to any woman who feels worthless and trapped with a man they love: Believe in yourself and your instincts.”

The term gaslighting is taken from the 1938 stage play, and 1940 film, Gaslight. In it, a husband attempts to convince his wife and others that she’s insane by manipulating small elements of their environment.

The term refers to the lights in their home which dimmed while he used the gas lights of the flat above, belonging to a woman he had secretly murdered. Now, the word has come to mean the act of manipulating someone by psychological means into doubting their own sanity – and