Carolyn Shepherd was trapped in her own home and kept under surveillance by the person who was supposed to love her.
When she first met Wayne Wellings online in 2013, he seemed like the perfect catch. Carolyn was 27 years old and ready to settle down, and Wayne wanted them to be together all the time. Over time, she learnt that Wayne had argued with most of his friends and family, and he wasn’t really close to anyone else, but she told herself that was his business and not hers.
Within six months, they’d found a place together and Carolyn borrowed money from her mum to help them move in. Her friends and famiy were so pleased for her, but she quickly realised that it was a big mistake. On the first night in their new home, they went out for drinks – but celebrations soon turned sour, and Wayne’s obsessive and controlling side began to show.
Carolyn told the Mirror: “Wayne was drunk when we got in and ordered a takeaway. He flew into a rage when the food was late, and somehow turned his anger on me. ‘You’re fat’, he sneered. ‘You need to lose some weight. You’re nothing but a dog’. Lunging at me, he threw me to the floor and rubbed my face in the dog’s bowl. I was in shock. I’d never seen him behave like that before.”
Carolyn knew she should leave him straight away, but she said it “wasn’t so simple”. “I felt ashamed to admit I’d made such a big mistake. In the end, I couldn’t bear to tell anyone. I just hoped he’d never do it again,” she explained. That night set the pattern for years of control, violence and torment for Carolyn. Wayne continued to degrade her, completely eroding her sense of self – a common tactic for abusers.
He would often accuse her of sleeping with other men, even though she was “devoted” to him. Carolyn recalled: “As I was doing my make-up each morning, he’d spit in my face and then run his hand down my cheeks, smudging my mascara into my foundation. He pulled out my hair extensions, too. ‘You’re a s**t,’ he said. ‘You deserve everything you get’.”
Carolyn would get lip fillers and cruel Wayne would press down hard on them until they split, and tell her: “That will teach you.” Other times, he would smash up her make-up bag, or walk past her and raise a hand. “He laughed when I flinched, as though it was all part of a game. But the threat of violence was somehow worse than the violence itself,” Carolyn said.
She loved to make herself feel good with feminine clothes and make-up, but as the years went on, she lost interest in her appearance. “I worked in the car industry, so most of my colleagues were male, which Wayne didn’t like at all. I wasn’t allowed to text or call another man, even though it was related to work,” she said.
In 2016, Wayne proposed and Carolyn told herself it could be a new start for them both – but deep down, she knew it was a mistake. “I felt so depressed and worthless, I couldn’t see a way out,” she said. “I’d started to believe that I deserved the abuse, just as Wayne claimed.”
She planned a quiet hen do, a night away in Essex, with two of her friends. But the moment they arrived at the hotel, Wayne started calling her and insisted she send him videos of her room to prove there was nobody else in there. “He didn’t leave me alone the whole night,” she said. The wedding day was even worse.
Wayne got drunk at the reception and vanished, Carolyn said, and when the last song played, her gay male friend took her hand and said: “You can’t miss the last dance at your own wedding.” But Wayne suddenly reappeared, and part-way through, he charged on to the dance floor and pulled Carolyn away, calling her a s**t and a s**g.
“I felt so ashamed; humiliated in front of everyone,” she said. “The abuse contiued back in our suite. ‘You’ve brought this on yourself,’ he yelled. ‘It’s your fault I lose my temper’.” Despite feeling incredibly unhappy with Wayne, Carolyn believed his words and found herself following his every instruction. Her self-esteem was warped by his horrific abuse and control.
For two long years, when Wayne, a welder, would go to work, he’d lock the door and take the keys with him. “I was trapped in the house. He kept a constant check on my through our Alexa, making sure I was on my own,” Carolyn said. But when she asked Wayne about it, he would tell her she was imagining it and ‘going mad’.
“I was trapped in my own home, under surveillance all day from a man who was supposed to love me. He listened in at random times of the day, to make sure I was always on my own. I felt so isolated and lonely. Sometimes, I wasn’t sure how much more I could take,” Carolyn said.
By then, her mum had realised what was going on and would call her daily to make sure she was safe. She would plead with Carolyn to leave Wayne, but when she did try, Wayne threatened to harm her or her mum. “In the end, I always gave in,” she said.
Then on December 27, 2020, Carolyn found the strength to walk away. The pair went out for a meal and she received a text message from a male colleague. Wayne was furious and took her phone away. When they returned home, he worked himself up into a rage, ripping his T-shirt off and glaring at her with “black eyes”.
“He looked almost demonic,” Carolyn remembered. “I went upstairs, to get away from him. But he followed and pulled down a curtain pole in the bedroom. To my horror, he began beating me with it. Even then, I gritted my teeth and didn’t dare cry out. I was so used to staying silent.
“Covering my head, terrified, I suddenly heard Mum’s voice downstairs. ‘Is everything OK here?’ she called. She hadn’t been able to reach me by phone, so she’d come round. I almost cried with relief. She may just have saved my life.” Her mum took her away, bruised and bloodied, and she never went back.
A year later, she felt strong enough to speak to the police. In September 2024, Wayne was found guilty at Liverpool Crown Court on two counts of ABH and controlling and coercive behaviour. In November, he was jailed for five years. “I am so relieved he’s behind bars. I have a chance to look to the future,” Carolyn said.
“I’m back at work, and life is better than it’s ever been. For eight long, lonely years, I stayed quiet, thinking that was best. Now I realise that finding my voice is the best thing I’ve ever done.”
For confidential support, call the 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Freephone Helpline on 0808 2000 247 or visit womensaid.co.uk.
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