A schoolgirl’s dream became a violent nightmare

TO 12-year-old Frances Smith*, he was all her schoolgirl dreams come true - a 15-year-old apprentice with a motorbike, money to spend, a great sense of humour and who, most importantly, noticed her.

After four years of being treated like a princess, the “funny, easy going Johnny” asked her to marry him and Frances thought she “was going to be happy for life.”

But, for the next 21 years and throughout four pregnancies, she was subjected to a regime of savage brutality with many of the attacks ending in rape.