A woman who was held captive for three days by her ex-boyfriend – who sheared her hair off as their children watched TV in another room – has spoken out about her nightmare ordeal.
Rebecca Watton, 29, of Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, was in a relationship with Ian Hassen, 27, for eight years and the couple had three children together.
They split in December 2012 but she remained friendly with Hassen, a Zimbabwean. The pair met through friends and moved to Scotland in 2004.
However, it later emerged that Hassen refused to accept their relationship was at an end.
He then attacked her as the pair sat watching television, pulling something tight around Ms Watton’s neck and then tying her up. He began interrogating her about where she had been and who she had seen.
‘I knew he had read my phone messages so I confessed I had met someone on the night out who had taken my number and asked me out on a date,’ she told The Daily Record.
Infuriated, Hassen kept her prisoner, assaulted her and threatened to kill her. He lay next to her in bed and watched her sleep.
After three days he dragged her out of bed, muttering that he was going to wait a week, but was going to do ‘it’ now.
Miss Watton thought he was going to murder her, but he instead began wordlessly clipping off her hair.
‘My hair felt like it was being ripped out by the roots,’ she said.
‘I could feel the blades of the scissors opening and snapping shut against my scalp. He wanted to make me unattractive, like less of a woman.’
She watched in tears as her hair fell to the floor, covering their daughter’s toys and bed, as the children watched cartoons downstairs.
She told him she wanted to vacuum the hair up, but instead he did it himself as she watched.
Ms Watton claims she was aware there was an unpleasant side to her former partner, but never dreamed he could do something so savage.
Ms Watton’s ordeal finally ended when she convinced him to let her go to the supermarket with him and told staff what had happened to her, showing them her shorn scalp.
He was arrested just outside the store.
