"I hate him for what he did" Brave domestic abuse victim opens up on 17 years of hell

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A Dumbarton woman whose violent ex-husband was sentenced following a 17-year campaign of domestic abuse has bravely spoken out as she urged other victims to speak up.

Sharon McCallion is encouraging women not to suffer in silence as figures released last week showed West Dunbartonshire has the second worst rate of domestic abuse in the country.

Two weeks ago, her ex-husband Bruce Summers was sentenced at Dumbarton Sheriff Court after pleading guilty to one charge of striking her on the head, throwing her towards a set of stairs, and pushing her on the body, repeatedly, over a period of almost 18 years.The 47-year-old admitted the attacks, which took place at addresses in Dumbarton and Kilmarnock between January 2002 and November 2019 and was sentenced to a community payback order with 150 hours of work on November 22.He was also ordered not to contact Sharon, with a three-year non-harassment order imposed.Courageously speaking to the Lennox from her Dumbarton home, Sharon told how she plucked up the courage to leave him after the tragic death of her 23-year-old daughter Samantha in 2019.Sharon, 45, said: “The attacks would happen once a week or fortnight.“A number of occasions when he’d be arguing with me, he’d push me and keep going.

He’d punch me in the stomach. There didn’t even really need to be a reason.“It could be something simple.“He’d do things to me and then shout ‘Sharon, wisen up.