The violence was there when I met my wife. She had a lot of emotion and anger in her, and I always wanted to understand why, so I could help. Over the years my father-in-law and I started to share more of our stories of frustration in living with such abusive women. Our stories were almost identical. I persisted stoically for over 20 years. It is very humiliating to admit you have a problem. No-one wants to air their dirty linen in public. For years I’ve been locked out of the house, plus physically and verbally abused. She would wake me in the middle of the night, beating and thumping me on the back with her fists.