‘He took every penny’: the women left with a debt mountain by coercive partners

Coercive or controlling behaviour has been an offence since 2015, but its financial aspects are poorly understood and can leave lives in ruins, a new report says

“I’ve got nothing. I’ve worked for 26 years and the only asset I have is my pension. I have no savings, no home and my credit rating is destroyed because of the credit cards and loans he took out in my name. Everything I thought we owned, we didn’t.”

Two years ago, Ruth Dodsworth, a television journalist and weather presenter, gave a number of interviews disclosing that she had been a victim of domestic abuse. For almost a decade, her now ex-husband Jonathan Wignall phoned her up to 150 times a day, tracked her movements and was physically abusive.