Five-year ordeal
To the outside world it
looked like Kniveton and Griffiths had the perfect relationship. But
behind closed doors Griffiths was “violent, controlling and
unpredictable,” she told the filmmakers.
Kniveton was coercively controlled, physically assaulted, spat on and raped in her sleep.
“People don’t think it can happen to middle-class, professional people. Domestic abuse has no boundaries,” she said.
It was when Griffiths’ career imploded in a sexting scandal
that she took the chance to leave him. He was a junior minister, for
small business, in 2018 when it became public that he had sent thousands
of explicit messages to two female constituents.
He resigned from his ministerial position but remained MP
for Burton, in Staffordshire, until the following year’s election when
Kniveton was approached to stand against him and won the parliamentary
seat.
In 2019 Griffiths applied to the family court to have more
time with his child. Like any parent going through family court
proceedings, Kniveton was not allowed to talk about her case.
Proceedings are heard in private.
But when journalists Louise Tickle and Brian Farmer found
out about her case and sought permission to report on the details,
Kniveton supported their application, waiving her right to anonymity as a
survivor of rape.
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