‘I moved to city for man I met online and he was evil’
EX-WIFE WAIVES ANONYMITY TO TELL HOW SHE HAS RECOVERED FROM ‘LIVING HELL’
A WOMAN who suffered hell at the hands of her controlling partner when she moved to the city after meeting him online has waived her anonymity to share her story.
Jennifer, then 36, was loving her life when she received a message from Jonathan Mealing on a dating website saying: “Hi, how are you?”Little did she know this was the start of three years of hell.
After being convicted at a trial of offences of rape, controlling behaviour and sexual assault against three women, Mealing, of Welbeck Close, Whitefield, was this month jailed for 30 years.
In 2016, single mum Jennifer was living in Bedfordshire. Upon receiving Mealing’s introductory message Jennifer replied a day later.
“He paid for my train ticket to go up and see him. He was like Prince Charming,” Jennifer said.
The couple would see each other on weekends. By January 2017 Mealing told Jennifer he had found her an ‘amazing job’ with more money – the only catch was that it was up in Manchester.
Once she moved into Mealing’s bungalow, he would constantly check her phone, he took her bank card to ‘manage her finances’ and began restricting her contact with friends and family.
Four hours into her first day at her job, she got a call from Mealing, telling her to make up an excuse to come home.
Jennifer said: “He told me if I didn’t get home he would put my stuff outside.
“He said it’s either leave the job or have no home. From then, I didn’t have a job. “Jennifer had a close relationship with her daughter, who was living with Jennifer’s parents in Bedfordshire. They could call each other to catch up on their day and she would often go down to visit on the weekends.
However, Mealing became angry and restricted their calls to 6pm only on a Wednesday and Sunday, to last for 10 minutes and to be on loudspeaker while he was in the room.
Mealing controlled her diet, limiting her to a measly four cubes of chicken, two spoonfuls of rice and just water to drink. She dropped a huge amount of weight, plunging to a size 6-8.
Jennifer was repeatedly raped by Mealing, during the day and night.
In November 2017, Mealing forced her into marrying him. Then, sadly, Jennifer suffered from a miscarriage – after which, Mealing blamed her for the loss of the baby and subjected her to ‘evil’ bullying about it.
She fell pregnant again a short time later, and after a difficult birth in which she required major surgery, Mealing raped her again. This was the final straw. Jennifer left and returned to Bedfordshire.
Months later, he turned up at the house during a supervised visit, threatening to take the child and making threats to kill her daughter.
It was only during the sentencing hearing that she learned of his previous conviction for domestic violence, dating back to 1993.
Speaking of the impact of the last three years, she said: “I am lucky I got out, otherwise I would have been six feet under. He would have killed me. I lost all confidence and self esteem.
“He went from Prince Charming to the most evil monster ever.
“I hate him.”