Bekah Smith suffered years of abuse at the hands of her former partner and the father of her child
It is a snapshot of a tender moment between a mum and her newborn baby. Yet the quick selfie taken by Rebecca Smith as her tiny son Calvin slept on her chest at home also tells a different, more harrowing story.
The bruising around her right eye also acts as a visual reminder of the abuse meated out on her by a man who claimed to love and care for her. For the first few months of the relationship between Rebecca, known as Bekah, and her former partner Karl Draper, things were 'great.' But then he turned violent. And it would be years until she felt able to speak out about her ordeal.READ MORE: Horror after serious crash in Oldham sees air ambulance scrambled with road closed for hours Bekah, from Kirkby, on Merseyside, met Draper through mutual friends in 2020. "The relationship progressed very quickly, too quickly. He moved in straight away" she told the Liverpool Echo. "For the first few months it was great. It was about four months in when things changed. He started isolating me from my friends. He first got violent when I bought a dog. He asked me for money. I said I couldn't, so he threw the dog cage at me. It was just horrific. It just got worse when I was pregnant." Liverpool Crown Court heard this week that Draper repeatedly strangled Bekah during the course of arguments. He even did so on two occasions after she had fallen pregnant with his child, leaving her "terrified that she was going to lose the baby" as she struggled for breath. Cheryl Mottram, prosecuting, outlined how the thug had also punched a hole in their bedroom door, callously broke items of her jewellery, covered their living room floor in shampoo, and even kicked their puppy on one occasion - causing it to "yelp in pain".Draper also "blackmailed" her into continuing the relationship - messaging her claiming that he was "on top of the heights and was going to kill himself", referring to the Quarry Green Heights block of flats in Kirkby, on one occasion after she attempted to break it off. On March 21 2022, their son Calvin was born. Bekah said that she had been hoping for a "fresh start" after she and Draper moved into a new house with their newborn baby and her two other children. But it wasn't to be. The 34-year-old said: "It just got worse." Less than two weeks after she had given birth, he threw Bekah to the floor - causing the scar from her cesarean section to reopen. On another occasion, when Calvin wasn't even a month old, he "forcefully" thrust the baby's bottle into her face. It was this incident that caused the black eye. Draper heartbreakingly told Bekah that he "wished he wasn't on the birth certificate" and, alarmingly, threatened that she would "end up in the morgue". She was strangled again after a night at a comedy club turned sour then, after he had taken up mixed martial arts, he viciously booted her to her back before throwing her onto their bed. In June 2023, she tried to end the relationship again. But Bekah then found Draper in the living room "trying to put a rope around his neck". The final straw came in September that year when, after he had snapped the power cable of her older son's PlayStation, the youngster told her that he no longer wanted to live under the same roof as her abuser any longer. Even after Draper had been asked to leave, he climbed into her home through the window twice under the pretence of "wanting to sort things out" before threatening self-harm. Bekah said: "He got everything he wanted. I wasn't near my friends, I didn't know anybody and he could do what he wanted. He started hitting me in front of the baby. The first time he did, he was just four weeks old." "I had a black eye from pushing the baby's bottle into my head. I thought it was going to come through the other side. There was also strangulation, and lots of bruising. I tried to break up with him, but he tried to hang himself and the police came. Every time I tried to get rid of him he would threaten to kill me or himself. It was mental torture." Draper pleaded guilty to engaging in controlling or coercive behaviour and five counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The 23-year-old, of Jade Close in Kirkby, was jailed for two years on Monday and handed a restraining order banning him from contacting Bekah for five years. Sentencing, the Honorary Recorder of Liverpool Judge Andrew Menary KC told him that he had shown "real warning signs" and "red flags". He added: "Often, people such as you, who engage in domestic abuse, have two faces - the one presented to the public, and the more sinister one which emerges in the context of an intimate relationship." Bekah read a statement to the court during Draper's sentencing hearing, which she said had "finally given her a voice" after he had "silenced her for three years". In it, she said: "I sometimes look back on photographs so that I can see that I was a totally different person to who I was before I met Karl." "I've lost the sparkle in my eye and the smile on my face. I'm devastated to recognise that I'm a shell of my former self. Before this relationship, I was an outgoing, positive and a happy person. However, I now constantly fear the worst and I've been in the lowest mental state I've ever been." Domestic abuse help If you’re experiencing domestic abuse, below you’ll find a list of organisations who can assist you: Call the UK police non-emergency number, 101, if you need support or advice from the police and it's not an emergency. If you have a hearing or speech impairment, use our textphone service on 18001 101. Greater Manchester Domestic Abuse Helpline - Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm, except bank holidays. For anyone experiencing domestic abuse. Includes a language service and advice for the LGBT community.Wigan and Leigh Dias drop-in centre - Works with women and men who are experiencing or recovering from domestic violence and abusive relationships and helps them to regain control of the situation."I recognise now that I didn't deserve the abuse. I am now receiving the support I need not only for me, but for my children to have their mummy back - healthy and happy." "Whilst I am so thankful for all the help and support services, I can't help but feel resentful that I am having to rebuild my life and live in fear because of the control and abusive actions and words of one individual who claimed to love me. I genuinely struggle to understand how someone could behave in this way and subject someone they claimed to love to so much abuse, both physically and mentally." "There were times during the abuse that I genuinely thought I would die, and I think about that often. I do fear for my life and that of my children and family." Bekah is now hoping to move forward in her life, as well as to help others to escape the cycle of abuse she found herself in only a few months ago. In particular, the mother-of-three is urging others to utilise Clare's Law - which allows members of the public to access information about a potential partner's previous convictions for violence. She added: "I was that scared he was going to kill himself or kill me that I had to call the police, it wasn't a choice anymore. He kept telling me they wouldn't believe me. But they have been fantastic. It's 2024 and we are talking about so many other things, but domestic violence is so taboo." "If people talk about it, it could help others. Things become so normal in abusive relationships, and maybe somebody reading this will realise there's a red flag and take more notice. I don't want to date again, but if I did I would also make sure to use Clare's Law. I think people forget that it's a thing." Bekah has now set up a petition calling for stricter bail conditions to be imposed on perpetrators of domestic violence while awaiting the outcome of their court cases. To view or sign the petition, click here.
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