A man who escaped an abusive relationship after nine months of hell has revealed how his ex-girlfriend forbade him from eating or using the toilet and branded him 'worthless'.
Gareth Jones, 41, now based in Cheshire, was subject to coercive control, verbal and physical abuse after moving in with with Sarah Rigby, also 41.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Gareth revealed how Rigby controlled his meal times and portion sizes, forbidding him from eating more than her.
She also stopped him from defecating in the house and restricted him to just one shower per fortnight, forcing him to wash at the gym.
Caught in a cycle of abuse, Gareth was terrified to speak out against his partner, who threatened to accuse him of raping her in he told anyone about her abuse.
However after seeking help and support from a charity, Gareth was finally able to break the cycle of abuse and moved out of the house of horrors he shared with Rigby before reporting her to the police.
Last month, she pleaded guilty to coercive control at Chester Crown Court and was given a suspended 20-month sentence.
NHS manager Gareth, originally from Pontypridd, met student nurse Rigby on the dating site Plenty of Fish and has previously described the early days of as like 'a normal relationship'.
However, looking back now, he realises aspects of the relationship were 'overpowering' and likened it to 'love-bombing'.
Within two months of meeting Rigby, Gareth had moved in with her - but almost as soon as they were living under the same roof, her behaviour began to turn.
Rigby began to control every aspect of Gareth's life, including when he ate and when he showered - branding him 'fat', 'disgusting' and 'smelly' among other insults.
As a result of her tight control of his portion sizes, Gareth lost a staggering four stone in just two months.
She made Gareth drink half a bottle of mouthwash, saying she wouldn't kiss him until he did.
Amid her campaign of abuse, Rigby threatened that if Gareth 'dared' disclose it to anyone, she would make the false claim that he had raped her.
Speaking to MailOnline, Gareth said: 'She told me "Who are they going to believe? Me or you?"
'It completely, completely battered my confidence. I felt completely demoralised.
'When you're being told you're worthless, overweight, smelly - you start believing these things.'
Gareth said he noticed the change in Sarah's behaviour when he moved in with her.
She immediately demanded he 'back pay' £700 in rent from the previous four months he had spent time there, as well as £700 monthly rent and all of the bills.
Despite this, Gareth was refused a house key and had to leave the property while Sarah was out, which meant he was often left roaming the streets.
Rigby didn't allow Gareth to keep his belongings at the house, saying they were 'excessive' and eventually confining his clothes to the garage.
Throughout their relationship, Rigby kept her dating app profile live and used it to taunt Gareth, leaving him 'intimidated' by other, younger men who showed an interest in her.
The abuse was also financial, with Gareth giving his ex around £40,000 in cash and gifts while they were together.
Once, when visiting London together, Sarah ordered Gareth to buy her 'something expensive'.
She clawed his arm through his jumper until he bled, and refused to leave until he spent £2,000 on a designer handbag.
Gareth described how, in their early stages of dating, he had booked a romantic trip away but Sarah told him at the last minute that she didn't want to continue the relationship.
Having lost money on the trip, Gareth reactivated his profile on the dating app, messaging other women in pursuit of a romantic connection.
Sarah then told him she had 'made a mistake' by ending things so abruptly and asked him to come round to her house.
While Gareth was showering, a message popped up on his phone from a match on the dating app.
'She came downstairs and went berserk and then threw me outside in my underwear,' Gareth said.
'I was stuck outside in my boxers. She was refusing to give me anything back.'
Eventually, Sarah gave Gareth some of his clothes. He went home and heard from her two days later.
'It was always very apologetic,' said Gareth. 'She'd say "This is just a phase I'm going through, things will be better".
'You start believing that this is just what this person is going through at the moment, and come out of it.
'And because you're then trapped in that bubble, you don't really see it.'
After Gareth moved in, Sarah began frisking him every time he exited or entered the house, looking for possessions she didn't approve of.
If he fell short of her expectations, Rigby would punish him through kicking, biting, clawing or punching him.
He was made to sleep on the floor with no covers and the windows open, and was locked out of the house so frequently during the day that he began working through the night.
Gareth said: 'If she wanted to go out, just because she felt like it, I'd have to go and walk the streets.
'I would have to make excuses for missing meetings with work.
'I used to have to do most of my work at night, save it, then send it first thing the following morning so it didn't look to my work as if I was working through the night.'
Rigby banned Gareth from seeing his friends and family, and he had to sneak out to see his mother when his abusive partner was out.
'At Christmas, my brother was visiting with my little nephew,' Gareth recalled.
'He said "I'm sure it'd be nice for Uncle Gareth to give the Christmas presents." My nephew was only two or three at the time.
'I really wanted to go meet them, and Sarah said to me "You're not going to see them. And if, if you do go and see them, I'll ring the police and tell them you raped me."
In the short time Gareth spent with his mother, she began to notice bruises on his arms.
Gareth now has a permanent scar across his nose, which he claims he sustained from when Rigby threw a candlestick holder at him because 'she was having a bad day.'
'She used to periodically kick me out, so a couple of times I went down to my parents' house,' said Gareth.
'My mum was imploring me to leave, saying "Look, you need to get out of this relationship".
'I tried to play it off a few times but eventually I was only allowed to have a phone conversation if [Rigby] was in the room next to me.
'And then she talked about putting cameras up around the house.
'Then once she said "If this continues, I might even end up killing you."
'That's when I started taking screenshots and sending them to my mum.
Rigby would delete calls and texts from Gareth's phone but, when he could, he began sending as much evidence of her abuse as possible to his mother for safekeeping.
They used the code word 'cat' to indicate that it was safe to text and talk freely without Rigby's leering influence.
He once stayed awake through the night, sending as much as much evidence as possible and deleting the texts afterwards.
Eventually Gareth decided to leave, motivated by desire to relieve his family's worry.
'I knew I'd have to do it when she wasn't expecting it.'
Gareth turned to the Mankind Initiative charity for help, and was advised to leave with just the essentials - laptop, passport, phone, wallet and driving license.
'She had taken my passport but I remembered where she'd hidden it,' said Gareth.
'I went upstairs to pretend I was going to brush my teeth, went into the bedroom, got the passport and put it down my pants, because I knew she wouldn't check down there.'
He pretended he was going to the library to work, but was stopped at the door by Rigby.
'I think she said something like "You'd better not be trying to sneak down the gym again for a shower."
'She said "Well, fine, but you better be back in four hours otherwise you're in trouble, and I'll be ringing you in an hour to make sure that you are down there."
'And then, I walked out. I rang my mum first, and I said "I'm out, I'm done, I'm out."
'I rang the police straight afterwards. And then I broke down.
'I'll never forget the weather as well on that day, because it was like that flying, misty rain, you know, it's not really raining, but it still gets you wet, that type of rain.
'The police came down and took a statement. [Sarah] tried to ring me a couple of times, and they said not to answer it, which was really, really, hard.
'They were just shocked. They made a phone call to the sergeant and said, "Yeah, we're going to arrest her."
Gareth has since spoken publicly about his story, and moved the nation by coming forward to tackle the stigma surrounding domestic violence suffered by men.
He is now an ambassador with the Employers' Initiative on Domestic Abuse (EIDA), a charity that pushes workplaces to take action on domestic abuse, and allow employees to turn to their seniors for help if they, or someone they know, is at risk.
'The more men that can speak up and address the stigma, the more it shows others that it does happen,' said Gareth.
'It is okay to say that you're not okay. It helps, I think, just sharing support within the male community to show there are a lot of different impacts of domestic abuse, and it's that psychological impact that's the most long-lasting.'
Susan Bright, CEO of EIDA, told MailOnline: 'Everything we do is rooted in the experience of people who have suffered domestic abuse.
'It’s absolutely vital that everything we do and suggest is practical and will work from a survivor’s perspective.'
EIDA offers a free membership and connects workplaces to one another, raises businesses' awareness of domestic abuse and provides a step-by-step employer guide on effective employer responses to domestic abuse.
The organisation also works with academics and the government to create change and influence policy surrounding domestic violence.