Our story so far.......

Eight years ago I came to Zakynthos on holiday and met my husband to be. Kind, attentive and funny we fell in love.  That all changed after we married a year later. In his place was a bully, control freak with a violent temper.

After being subjected to eight years of physical, emotional and sexual violence, no or little money and having 2 beautiful children to protect and feed I boarded an aeroplane and left the island to return to the UK. Knowing my husband had no money I was sure we'd finally be safe to start a new life and most importantly not have to worry about where our next meal was coming from.

Alas this was short lived. With a little help from his friends in greece he managed to contact a solicitor in the UK who informed him that this was classed as 'Child Abduction' and he was entitled to legal aid. As it turns out our great british system, that can't or won't protect a british citizen (me) and her children, will gladly grant a greek national thousands, and I mean thousands, of pounds in legal aid, pay for his flights and put him up in a top london hotel, whilst he takes me to the european court in london, The Haige!

I am ordered back to Greece as my children were born there. I am then expected to fight through the greek courts. The court order said my husband was not allowed within 500m of the house, which he broke by moving back in. He had to pay 600 euro every month in maintenance, which he did for the first 2 months and every month thereafter it got less and less. He was not to sell my horse, which he already had when he took me to court in the uk and spent the money. He was not to harrass, intimidate or threaten me, which he has done on a daily basis. He was to give 350 euro for me to find a new property within a few days of returning and a 100 euro for utility bills. I found 2 houses but he refused to pay them, saying they were too far away from his mothers, they were 2km away! There were other conditions and he has broken them all.

In May this year he attacked me, punching me in the head and landing a flying kicked in my chest in front of my children. I finally plucked up the courage to call the police and have him arrested. I had finally got him out of my house or so I thought. The police told me I did not need to go to court but on the day at 12.15pm I get a call from a police office in the court to ask where I was and that I need to be there in 5 mins with a translater. My kids were in their pj's watching cartoons. I had to find someone to look after them and wait for them to arrive. I couldn't find a translater at short notice. I Managed to get hold of my solicitor, who offer their services for free for me and get to court 40 mins late. The female judge was not impressed, didn't want to listen to my solicitor as to why we were late and that was that. Whilst my husband was locked up for the night, he was allowed to keep his personal items on him and called a friend of mine and told her to call me to say I would not be safe just because he was locked up. This man has been relentless in the amount of emotional abuse he has dished out on me, and always in front of my children.

Since May he has hounded me day and night using my children to get into the house, broken house phones, my mobile, printer anything that will help me stay in touch with the outside world. He's threatened my friends to stay away from me (not that I was aloud many in the 8yrs). This is a small island and people my feel for my plight but no help is forthcoming. The police can't do anything, the embassy says they can't do anything. I have contacted numerous organisations and have heard nothing. I just hope my blog may generate some media or other attention back home in the UK.

This man is a compulsive lier and loads of people here know that, but he believes whats coming out of his month so that makes him very convincing. He's threatened me with being gang raped, he's pulled an illegal knife on me he's threatened to kill me on numerous occassions, he's tried to break into my house. He calls me terrible names in front of my kids and tells them I don't love them. I worry about the pyscological effect this will have on them. He see's this as a competition and he is the winner. He's basically mad and doesn't deserve to be a part of my beautiful children's lives. He's a disgusting individual!

We have no health care, no money for the dentist, friends donate clothes for my kids, but the worst is not knowing where our next meal will come from. He's refusing to give us any money this month. I think his plan is for us to starve so that I will had over custody of the kids to him and I return to the UK. That will never happen as long as I breath.

This would not be tolerated in the UK so why would they send british citizens back to this kind of life.  I need to get us all home safely before he kills me or we starve to death.

I would be eternally grateful for any help whatsoever