A woman who was raped, attacked and controlled by her own boyfriend has bravely spoken about years of abuse after he was finally brought to justice.
Ben Fitton who sent thousands of vile messages and voice notes to Hannah Mellor, including one which read: “Ugly fat mess, you deserved to be raped for the rest of your insignificant life,” was jailed for 18 years. She is now speaking in out in a bid to help other women in similar abusive relationships.
She had once been terrified of speaking out. It had been drummed into her that nobody would believe her, and that if she told the police, her family would be put at risk. Fitton had gone onto rape her after strangling her, and threatening to pour a kettle of boiling water over her if she didn’t perform a sex act on him.
But when Fitton made a terrifying threat to go to her little boy’s school with a knife, she knew she had to do something. She went on to Greater Manchester Police’s live chat and typed: “Hi I’m in an abusive relationship and I want to leave him but he’s threatening my son. He won’t stop harassing me and I don’t know what to do [sic].”
Hannah, 32, said the couple met through mutual friends and began dating in April 2021. But although the first few weeks were ‘lovely’, things quickly went sour. She shared a picture of Fitton asleep onto her Snapchat story, with the caption saying she couldn’t sleep because of his snoring.
A male friend replied with “cool” but when Fitton woke her up, he accused her of cheating on him and hit her. “Because it’s the first time he said it would never happen again, it was a ‘spur of the moment’ and he ‘just lost his temper’”, she said. “I just thought he was just paranoid, which he was but I don’t think I quite realised how bad it was at that point.”
The controlling behaviour escalated. He forced her to get a Ring doorbell as he continuously accused her of cheating on him. He then changed the password so she couldn’t use the account. He accused her of having men climbing through her bedroom window whilst he was out.
Breaking down in tears, Hannah told the Manchester Evening News: “A vicious rumour went round that I had got pregnant by my own brother and had an abortion. Obviously it was not true. I found it difficult because I loved him [Fitton] and he’s going out and lying about me and making me look like not a good person.”
She added: “He owned me, I was a possession, that’s what I felt like. I was not a person, I was his belonging, he wasn’t ever going to just let that go. He said he would go to my mum’s work and paint her blood all over Hattersley, or ‘just letting you know I’m going to go and stab your son to death’, ‘phone the police and your brother’s house will be petrol bombed’. So I sat there and thought ‘I’ll do whatever you want’.”
Things escalated after her son’s birthday meal. Fitton had been waiting outside her house and had been constantly ringing her to ask where she was. When they met, she was bombarded with a barrage of abuse, with Fitton telling people on the street that she was a ‘prostitute’ and sold herself on the street.
She wouldn’t be allowed to do the washing in case the laundry room was ‘”full of men”, she couldn’t answer the door without him there – either in person or on FaceTime – and she was not allowed outside the house on her own.
“My two things are a cup of tea and music. As long as I’ve got a cup of tea and music, I can happily entertain myself for the next 48 years. So he would stamp on my portable speaker and pour my tea over me, as he knew it would get to me. I just came to accept it, I was so used to it. Because of the way I was, I didn’t care what he did to me, I just thought he would do it no matter what. I can’t get out of it, I can’t get away from it, I can’t tell anyone.
“It got to a point that I didn’t care anymore. I said it wasn’t a big issue if he killed me, because being killed was probably better than living the life I was. I know it was hard, my mum told all my family to prepare themselves to have to bury me. She thought he was going to go too far or do it on purpose or I would take my own life. She wasn’t far off wrong.”
On Christmas Day, Hannah attempted to take her own life. Her mental health had rapidly deteriorated, she was hearing voices, seeing hallucinations, not sleeping or eating properly, she said. “Even though I know he is in prison, it’s still in my head.”
Hannah recounted the night he raped her, she said: “He was effing and jeffing, saying I was unfit mum, threatening to kill everybody, threatening to skin my sister’s cat. Then he put his arm around my throat, and was squeezing and squeezing. I felt like I was passing out, then he loosened his grip and I bit him on the arm and he let go of me. Then he turned me round and pushed me forward and raped me. I didn’t report him. I left it. I didn’t care what he did to me anymore. He told me nobody would listen to me.”
He then left her alone for three to four days. It had been the longest time she had not heard from him and she thought she was finally free. He called and wanted to sort things out, but Hannah said she couldn’t do it anymore. “He said ‘Hannah that’s absolutely fine but just letting you know I’m about two mins from [her son’s] school, I’ve got a knife and I’m going to stab him to death’.
“That changed everything. Do what you want to me, don’t come for my baby. I went on live chat, sent that message and never ever looked back. It didn’t matter about me, I’m a grown up. I got myself into that situation. I accepted it was my own fault, but my five-year-old little boy didn’t do anything.” Following a joint effort of GMP and Derbyshire Constabulary, Fitton was arrested. She added: “They saved my life.”
Detective Constable Russ Clarke of Rochdale CID said of the investigation: “It comprised all those horrendous different elements of domestic violence, nothing didn’t feature. It was physical, psychological , emotional, sexual, and the worst example of controlling coercive behaviour I had seen. There were thousands of messages, two thousand audio recordings, it gave a real visceral insight into how he is as a person. The way he would chip away at her, relentless, demanding, with incredible levels of entitlement – a genuine narcissist. He ticks all boxes for being a real narcissistic abuser.”
For confidential support, call the 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Freephone Helpline on 0808 2000 247 or visit womensaid.co.uk . If you or your family have lost a friend or family member through fatal domestic abuse, AAFDA (Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse) can offer specialist and expert support and advocacy. For more info visit ** www.aafda.org.uk**.
