BATTERED BY EX-COPPER
‘Former police inspector told partner it was pointless to report what he’d done’
AWOMAN who endured a sustained and bloody attack by her ex-police inspector partner has bravely spoken out about her painful and terrifying ordeal.
The 47-year-old from Pembroke, who we are calling Ceri to protect her identity, described how Paul Bonning was “frothing at the mouth” in anger before he beat her, striking her with a knife after he came home from a night out on Sunday, July 1, 2018.
The 54-year-old had previously served 30 years with the Met Police in London and with Dyfed-Powys Police.
Swansea Crown Court heard how following the attack Bonning told Ceri not to go to bed as he did not want her blood on his white sheets, and warned her not to report the assault to the police as he knew people “high up” in the force.
The mum-of-two said Bonning’s threats resulted in her being too terrified to tell officers the truth when she was confronted about her injuries while at hospital.
Describing the night in question, she said: “He had been out and I’d gone to his house when he came back in [and had some drinks].
“He’d had a couple of drinks and we went off to bed and he had a whiskey and I grabbed a glass of water.
“We were just talking about random stuff and I [asked him a question]. Then he got up and went ballistic, frothing at the mouth, shouting and screaming and swearing.
“I [ended up] on the floor and then I sat on the sofa and asked him if I could finish what I wanted to say and with that, he gave me a wallop in the face. Then it was round two, back on the floor.
“I went outside, came back in and he was stood there with the knife.”
Ceri said she tried calming Bonning down to no avail so then tried leaving the room. Mr Bonning retrieved a black-handled knife from the kitchen and struck her on the back of her head.
Ceri started to bleed profusely, though it is unclear which end of the knife was used to attack her, the court heard.
As a result, she suffered a 10cm cut to the top of her head along with bruising which “had the appearance of finger marks” to the upper arms and bruises and tenderness to her back and shoulder.
“He saw the bleeding and told me I needed to get it looked at,” she said.
“He went to go to bed and said I could not join him because he didn’t want me to get blood on his sheets, so I sat out in the car because I had a few drinks and couldn’t drive home. I went back in the house and stayed on the sofa until the next day.”
When Ceri got home the next day, she said she was in a “lot of pain” so went to hospital. She said she had been told by Bonning to tell medical staff at the hospital that she had fallen off a chair and had hit her head.
She said she obeyed Bonning as she was not in the right state of mind to be open about what happened.
“I told them I fell and then they checked my blood pressure and stuff which meant the nurse checking my arm. It was all bruised, and she went out of the room and another lady came in. They then called the police,” Ceri said.
Again, because of her state of mind at the time, Ceri said she was unable to be honest with officers at that point in time so did not make a complaint.
Bonning later gave a “no comment” interview to police and no further action was taken.
Ian Wright, prosecuting, said following the attack the pair met on a local beach where Bonning told her not to go to the police, telling her she was a bad liar, and adding “the police will suck it out of you – that is what they do”.
The prosecutor said Bonning was subsequently served with a domestic violence protection notice but once that expired the couple stayed in touch and, though there was no further physical violence in the relationship, the defendant was verbally abusive.
The relationship finally ended in January 2019, and later that year Ceri went to the police to report the earlier assault.
Bonning, of East Back, Pembroke, had previously pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions.
At the hearing Dean Pulling, for Bonning, said his client was, to use his own words, “almost burnt out” by the time he retired from policing, was suffering with stress and depression and potentially from post-traumatic stress disorder, and for the first time in his life had been drinking to excess.
The barrister said a pre-sentence report concluded Bonning posed a low risk of re-offending, and said beyond punishment a term of immediate custody would serve little or no benefit.
Bonning was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to complete a rehabilitation course and a building better relationships course. He was also ordered to pay his victim £2,000 in compensation, and to pay £720 towards prosecution costs.
Ceri said that with hindsight, she wishes she had been honest with the police sooner, but said it is not that simple for victims in that situation.
“I wish I had done all of this at the time, but it’s not that simple. Anyone who has survived this, or will go through this and comes out the other side will understand.
“My energy had been zapped out and I just felt weak, embarrassed and ashamed. I thought, ‘do I want to go through this and speak out about it?’, especially with him telling me he knew people high up in the force.
“When they suspected something was going on with me and I said I wasn’t going to press charges, I think they should have been able to do it for me. As much as I would have hated it at the time, I would have thanked them in the long run.”
Ceri said that throughout the relationship she had lost two-and-a-half stone as Bonning liked nice clothes and she wanted to make him happy.
She said: “People have questioned if he would have gotten longer if he wasn’t an ex-copper and when you do look at him he is very well suited and booted. He comes across charming. His sentence, it’s a joke, is it going to make other men look at that and think they can get away with it? There’s not justice there for women who go through this.
“Victims think it’s their fault but they have been manipulated into a way of that thinking. I’m just someone from social housing, he’s a cop, who are they going to believe?
“You get those sorts of things in your head. If they stand him next to me you’d probably think ‘he’s a very handsome, smart-looking guy, I don’t know [if he would have done this]’.
“It puts shame on you, you think you won’t be believed. You also carry the guilt and the blame with you when you do cover up for them – you punish yourself.”
Ceri said her ordeal changed many aspects of her life and how she viewed the world: “I’ll always question what love is now,” she said. “Because when you love someone like that, and then you still love them, and you still love them regardless.
“Now I can see that wasn’t love. In my head I fell head over heels and wanted to protect him and hold onto him. We broke up a few times and he’s sent me things showing how much he missed me so of course I was always going to go back to him.
“I was recently flicking through a dating app and thinking no, that’s not for me and my daughters try and assure me there are nice people out there. I’ve not been in a relationship since him, I’ve chatted to some nice people but then I think ‘do I want to go through that again?’.
“Friends said to me I used to be bubbly and full of life, ‘it’s like you had the life sucked out of you’. It’s coming back a little. With my daughter being home we’ve had a laugh together. My life is my life again and I do what I want.”
Ceri and her two daughters, who are in their 20s, said the sentence feels like no more than a “slap on the wrist” for Bonning while the compensation provides them with no relief for the mental trauma they will carry with them going forward.
The three said they are incredibly close and offer each other great support. Both daughters said they worried something wasn’t quite right during the relationship but could never have imagined the scale of it.
Ceri’s 26-year-old daughter said: “It’s horrific knowing your mum has gone through something like that, with no help and with nobody there. People go through bad relationships but this is on a whole new level. You just don’t know how to react and you worry about things.
“She wasn’t with him [ when this came out] so the fear wasn’t so bad by then but you think ‘how did things get so bad without us noticing or without us being able to help or do anything?’.
“The outcome of the case made us both angry, all abuse is awful but I’ve seen cases where less happens but they go to jail. It was a man attacking a woman with a knife, when you boil it down to its most simple form.
“We hope sharing our story will encourage people going through the same thing to come forward and to know they are not alone.”
■ Domestic Abuse Helpline 0808 2000 247. If you are in immediate danger please call 999.