A 24-year-old mother from Wales lived through eight years of abuse at the hands of her now ex-boyfriend, who is also the father of her child, per ITV News. Jessica Tasker said that the abusive and controlling behavior started when she was 15 years old. Tasker shared heartbreaking and horrifying images of various parts of her body covered in bruises and said her then-boyfriend was “clever” and “knew not to leave a mark on my face," until August 2022, when he started “smashing” her head from “side to side on the sofa," the outlet reported. At that time, she thought she might die and began writing “goodbye letters” to her toddler.
Her devastating story highlights the horrifying issue of domestic abuse. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 1 in 4 women experience intimate partner violence during their lifetimes. Tasker is bravely sharing her story in the hopes that it will give others in a similar situation the confidence to leave.
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Tasker shared that the abusive and controlling behavior started when she was only 15.
She shared that she met her ex-boyfriend Thomas Parry, when she was 15 and he was 20, reported The Sun. This is when he started exhibiting abusive and controlling behavior. "He didn't like me wearing makeup to school, he wouldn't let me speak to any male friends, and he didn't like me going out with my own friends,” Tasker said.
She explained that in the beginning, he never hit her face. "He'd punch the back of my head, he'd pull my hair out, stuff like that. He'd grab my jaw and push it into the ground but he'd never actually hit me in the face. He was clever, he knew not to leave a mark on my face or stuff like that so he'd hit my body,” she said.
When she thought she might die, she started writing goodbye letters to her toddler.
Tasker began fearing for her life and started writing goodbye letters to her toddler in the event of her death, reported The Sun. She said she had to set up a fake email address. Tasker explained, "I also wrote letters to my little boy and told him how much I loved him — it was something I felt I had to do in case Thomas did kill me. Then I deleted it all because I knew as soon as Thomas came back he'd check my phone — all my messages and photographs.”
Things escalated in August 2022, when Tasker was beaten so badly she thought she might die. This led to her finding the courage to get away from her abusive boyfriend. "He started going on top of me and strangling me until I started to black out and then when I passed out, he grabbed my hair and started smashing my head side to side on the sofa,” she told ITV News.
She says he proposed the next day, but then began attacking her again. She that she will need surgery for her jaw from when he attacked her. “We were all in the flat and I somehow got the courage and made a run for it when he wasn't looking through the front door and out into the street,” Tasker shared. She also reached out to her family for help, and they suggested she involve the police.
More from CafeMom: 7 Steps to Leaving an Abusive Relationship Safely
She feels free now that her ex-partner was recently sentenced, but is living with PTSD from the years of abuse.
Tasker’s ex was sentenced to serve four and half years in prison in March. Half of his sentence will be served "on licence," which is similar to probation in the US, the outlet reported. Though Tasker is now free from years of being in this abusive relationship, her harrowing experience has left her with PTSD in addition to a recovery process from her physical injuries.
"The emotional abuse is actually worse that the physical. When you see the photos you think that's the [worst] part, but to me, what he's done to me mentally is actually much worse. I just feel broken, some days I feel okay and I think I'm free now, I'm better now but other days I just start crying because it just replays in my mind," Tasker said in an interview with ITV News.
"When you're in that position and you mentally feel like you physically can't leave. You feel so worn and broken down but it's not as scary as it seems, because when you're with someone like that you feel so afraid to leave of what they might do or say or anything about you, but I've realized now I do have a voice and I do deserve better,” she said.
The story was shared on TikTok and users were outraged that her abuser received such a short sentence.
ITV News shared Tasker's story on TikTok, and users were appalled that her abusive ex-boyfriend only received a four-year sentence for all the trauma and pain he caused her.
“This is sad and how terrible the courts deem 4 years an acceptable sentence the bruises are horrific and hes only 29 thought it OK to propose,” commented one user.
“What a joke of a sentence, the trauma of that will be everlasting, should throw the key away!” commented another user.
“4 years and probs serve 2 r u joking ?" commented someone else. "Pssh not enough time!!! look at them bruises That’s bad abuse. Hope he doesn’t live easy life after this!”
Another wrote: “That’s not justice!!! The system fail DV victims so much.”
If you or someone you know has been the victim of domestic abuse, you can find help and support at DVIS.org, the National Domestic Abuse Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or by contacting your local women's shelter domesticshelters.org.
