Latest / Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast / Alex Skeel - Domestic Abuse Survivor

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Alex Skeel - Domestic Abuse Survivor · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: When Alex first met Jordan at sixteen years old, she
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: seemed like the caring and confident first girlfriend that he
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: had always expected to find. But over the next five years,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: their relationship become increasingly controlling and violent, leaving Alex isolated
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: from his family, denied food and medical treatment, and subjected
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: to attacks involving hammers, knives, and even boiling water. By
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: June of twenty seventeen, when police finally discovered what was
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: happening inside the couple's home, Alex was just twenty two
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: years old and in such poor physical condition doctors believed
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: he was only days away from death. One of extreme abuse, isolation, manipulation, and,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: in my opinion, even torture. This is the brutal story
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: of Alex Skiel.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked Ingrim,
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: a true crime.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Podcast material Audience.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: Listeners, have you even noticed the little thing I've noticed?
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Okay, well, I'm like, you haven't said anything, so I'm
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: wondering if I don't know, if you didn't notice them.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: They are clear, So.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: You always have those things, well not always, but you
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: wear them frequently I know.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: And I was like, I'm gonna wear them extra long today.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Maybe they'll make me look extra.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Awake, extra maybe they'll give you an extra irritation under
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: your eye of skin rash or something. Who knows.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: I know, Okay, it's so odd because I feel like
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: you just have such nice skin, thank you, and you
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: don't really do a lot to it. And so I'm
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: wondering if that's the trick. You know.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: I feel that there's a lot of men and women
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: relationships out there where there's that dynamic where the women
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: are just like, why does your skin look so good?
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: And the guys are like, I don't know. It must
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: be the grease on my face, like you know, because
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: we don't do a whole lot with it, the natural oils.
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: Mabe.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: I bought you an awesome moisturizer. Do you even ever
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: use that?
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: I don't need it?
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: And then I think you like wash your face with
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: baby wipes, don't you.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: Occasionally when you wash your face? No?
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: No, not when I wash my face. If my face
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: is like particularly dirty and it's like I'm gonna be
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: going to bed and I don't want to wash my face,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: I'll get my face like a quick wipe down, not
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: a wash.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: It's a white I think one time in our whole
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: living in this tiny home, which has been like almost
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: five years, you've asked me once, Oh, what can I
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: use to clean my face? Like a cleanser?
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but I usually if I'm going to wash my face,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: just use like the hand soap, or I'll even go
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: into like the shower and I'll get my body wash stuff.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: I'll do those.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's probably a lot more to it. It
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: could even be like hormonal stuff too write and all
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: that jazz.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Or it could just be that, you know what, it's
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: the own natural oils and the less irritation and stuff
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: of my skin that makes it better.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Well, honestly, when I do go long periods without wearing makeup,
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: I do find that my skin is better. So maybe
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: it's actually not necessarily the moisturizer, the cleansers. It's it's
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: like wearing makeup.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: I think it's everything. Just don't put shit on your
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: face and you're good. That's my theory. Welcome to Ben's
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: cosmetic podcasts and skincare routines today or a topic.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you could do a podcast while you're going through
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: your skin care routine.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Oh, they'd be quick, be very quick. Today we're washing
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: our face with a baby white.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: I think we should probably not be talking about our
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: skin routines. I think we should get on with our
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: typical true crime stuff. But before we do that, we
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: of course have to thank our patreons this week who
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: signed up, So a big shout out to Tara and
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Dan Jones. They both signed up. They're getting the exclusive
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: behind the scenes. Not only that, they're also getting completely
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: ads free listening experiences over there. So if you guys
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: want to join over there with those two amazing people,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: you can do the same thing links in the description
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: of this podcast.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: It's pretty great.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I felt like it was very infomercial on that
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: one today was I.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: In a genuinely good way, though, in a genuinely good way,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: A genuine and genuine way.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Okay, all right, sure, I don't know. I just had
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: like I felt like at a radio voice or I
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: was like doing a script or something. Please sign up
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: today for you know, like that sort of thing.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Hey, well, whatever works, I guess.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: I guess so. But I do want to give you
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: guys warning today. This is a Survivor episode that deals
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: in some pretty severe abuse within a domestic relationship. So
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: heads up on that. But it is also I mean,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: it is a dark story, but it is also a
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: very empowering story at the same time.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: So we got to get through the shit to see
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: the light.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, basically, basically, And there's one thing I want to
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: preface this episode with specifically because this is actually something
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: that this survivor individual fights for nowadays, an advocate for that.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Domestic abuse, that violence, things like that can come from anywhere.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: It's not things to do always with systemic situations or
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: you know, gender situations. It can be anyone. The victim
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: in this case is a male. Is error to be
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: a male victim of domestic abuse, but it happens, and
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Alex is well, he's a champion for what he went through.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Okay, well I want to hear a story.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Let's get into it. Alex Skiel grew up in Bedford, England,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: in a close family where football or soccer for anyone
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: in North America, was a huge part of his life.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: He was born prematurely on August seventeenth, nineteen ninety five,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: along with his twin brother Luke, and he weighed only
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: around two pounds at birth. He was tiny. His early
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: years included time and intensive care and several medical procedures,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: but as he got older those complications faded into the background.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: He became an energetic kid, later even doing some child
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: modeling for a supermarket chain, but by his teenage years,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: most of his attention was in fact fixed on football.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Weekends were often built around the game. He played on
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Saturdays and on Sundays, then spent time with his friends,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: and by his own account, had very little interest in
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: any sort of dating around then. Girls were not really
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: something that he thought about much, and he was really
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: shy around them to boot, so it was never really
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: something he was seeking out as far as a serious relationship. However,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: that did change. In twenty twelve. Alex was sixteen and
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: was attending college in Bedford when a friend of his
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: took part in a college concert performance. Alex went along
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: to support his friend, and there was Jordan Worth, who
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: was there for the very same reason, watching one of
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: her own friends perform too, and that's when the two
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: started talking. For Alex, even that felt new, he later
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: remembered being surprised that Jordan actually seemed interested in him
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: at all. They conversed. They spent some more time together
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: after that, and quickly became close. Now to Alex, she
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: came cross as very confident, caring, and even loving. She
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: paid attention to him in ways that he'd never really
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: experienced before, and he fell head over heels for her. Quickly.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: His friends got to know Jordan as well. One of
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Alex's friends remembered her as friendly, quiet, and somewhat timid
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: around you know, larger groups, but still quite nice. But
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: quickly she found her place. She became part of the
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: social circles and joined them during nights out together. On
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: one occasion, while Alex's family was away, the teenagers even
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: had the house to themselves. Jordan was there with the group,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: drinking and joking with everyone. At one point, they even
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: ended up singing the Stille songs on the roof of
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: a shed. It's kind of one of those teenage nights
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: for the ages, you know, you look back on for
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: years to come to everyone around Alex. His new girlfriend
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: seemed really nice, and Alex was completely taken with her. Now.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: His family also got to know Jordan too, although over
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: time they soon began noticing some small things that felt
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: unus usual. See, the Skiel family was really close. They
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: did things like eat together at the dinner table. They
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: spent time together and remained involved in one another's lives,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: and Jordan sometimes questioned that family closeness, asking even why
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: they sat around the table to eat dinner together. Then
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: there were comments about Alex himself. Jordan would tell him
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: that she did not like certain clothes that he wore. Gray,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: for example, was a color she didn't think that he
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: should wear. She commented on his shoes, and even told
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: him she preferred his hair styled in a different way. Now,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: at the time, Alex didn't see those comments as controlling
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: at all. He was sixteen and so was she. This
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: was his first relationship and trying to impress someone that
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: he cared about was, you know, something on his mind.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: So if his girlfriend Jordan didn't like something he wore,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: he simply thought he'd just stop wearing it. If she
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: preferred his hair a different way, well he could always
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: change it. In Alex's mind, these were small adjustments, not
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: signs of anything that was or is wrong.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: That's so young, though, it is like to have such
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: strong opinions like that, you know, definitely, because how much
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: experience does she have in like relationships and stuff?
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: So probably not much, but I mean to be fair.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: If someone has a preference, I understand that. But to
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: be trying to control your partner into, you know, staying
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: within your preference, that's a controlling behavior. Saying don't wear
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: your hair like this, I like your hair like that,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Saying you shouldn't be wearing this color. It doesn't look
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: good on you wear these colors. That's manipulation and contry.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's definitely it's going too far.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Now that's not to say I think your hair
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: looks better this way is a bad thing. You can
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: tell someone an opinion and be like, I like your
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: hair with a ponytail. You could say something like that,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: or you know what, gray might not be your color.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: I think you look really good in bright colors like
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: a yellow or a pink looks really good on you
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: with your skin tone. Those are fine, Yeah, But to
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: coerce someone into your preference.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: That's well. And the problem too, I guess is Alex
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: is quite young first relationship as well, like to be
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: able to you know, not be able to just be like, well,
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: fuck off, I'm wearing the shirt right.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, No, he's he wants to impress it to him.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: These are minor things. He doesn't see the harm in
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: doing what his partner likes, and there isn't harm in
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: that either. It's when there's no other option, and when
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: it's continual and almost everything. Yeah. Now, his family was very,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: very much so less comfortable with this sort of stuff
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: than Alex was, and the longer Alex and Jordan were together,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: the more his mother and others around him became to
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: feel that Jordan was playing games with Alex emotionally. Now,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: Alex could see some of the odd behavior himself too.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: He wasn't completely blind to it, but when it was
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: just the two of them, things often felt very much
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: so different, which ultimately made it easier for him to
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: believe that his family was just reading too much into things.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: But one of the stranger moments came during a trip
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: to London. Alex and his twin brother were approaching their
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: eighteenth birthdays and the family had a trip that was
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: planned to include going to see the Lion King musical
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: in London's West End. Jordan came along with the family,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: and by most accounts, the outing was going really well.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: They had enjoyed themselves, but at around midnight, while everyone
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: was back at the hotel, Jordan suddenly disappeared. She hadn't
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: told Alex where she was going, and as the time
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: passed with no sign of her, what might have you know,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: initially seemed like Jordan simply stepping out or something like that,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: it became increasingly worrying because she wasn't coming back. Alex
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: and his family began searching for her, spending roughly an
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: hour trying to work out where she had gone.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Eventually they returned to the hotel, only to find Jordan
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: back in the lobby reception area, apparently perfectly fine. But
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: what made the whole thing even stranger was not the
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: fact that she left for about an hour and came
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: back and was just sitting there. It was her reaction because,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: according to the family, Jordan was laughing. Everyone was worried
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: enough to spend the better part of an hour looking
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: for her, while Jordan appeared to basically treat the situation
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: as it was amusing.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Wow, their concern was amusing.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: To her exactly now. There seemed to be no obvious emergency,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: and at the time Alex didn't fully understand or even
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: really know what to make of it. But years later
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: he would look back on this incident and others like
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: this as some of the earliest examples of psychological games
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: that had begun creeping into the relationship now. The incident
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: left everyone extremely confused, and Alex's parents told him that
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: her behavior didn't seem right, but Alex was still trying
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: to make sense of the relationship, so he didn't think
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: much of it. He brushed it off when he and
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Jordan were alone. He didn't always see the versions of
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: her that his family saw, so to him, that's what mattered,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: what what he saw, what their relationship was experiencing, and
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: so that relationship continued. But as his actual birthday approached,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: those concerns were about to become much harder for everyone
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: around him to ignore, including himself. When Alex and his
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: twin brother Luke turned eighteen on August seventeenth, twenty thirteen,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: their mother ged organized a large birthday party for the
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: twins at a local hall, and it wasn't a small
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: event either. Around one hundred people were invited, there was
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: a caterer, and Alex even had a Leeds United birthday
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: cake for his favorite football team made just for the occasion.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: Dang, that's like almost a wedding basically.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was like a big kind of coming of
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: age party, right.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: I love that he clearly has pretty awesome parents.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and a close knit family, because this is meant
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: to be like a big celebration surrounded by the people
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: that these these two brothers grew up with. Now, but
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: during the party, Jordan actually became fixated on one particular guests.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Though none of the girl that she was fixated on
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: was fifteen years old and was a friend of Alex's,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Jordan had apparently become jealous of her and believed there
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: was something going on between the two of them, despite
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Alex reassuring her that there wasn't. But still during the party,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Jordan confronted the girl and began screaming and verbally berating
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: her in front of other guests. Now, this was very
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: different from the smaller incidents Alex's family had witnessed before.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: There wasn't something subtle, and criticism of it couldn't easily
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: been brushed aside. Jordan was openly causing a scene in
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: a room filled with Alex's family and friends, and Alex
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: was left extremely upset by what was happening. His friend
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Jed eventually pulled him away from the party and took
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: him into the bathroom so they could talk privately. Now
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: Alex was extremely distraught. He was crying, and Jed tried
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: to convince him that the relationship he was in was
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: not healthy and that he needed to leave Jordan, but
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Alex still resisted. He loved her and he felt that
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: he needed to look after her, and those feelings continued
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: to outweigh what his friends were telling him. Even when
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Jordan's behavior was playing out publicly right around him, Alex
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: was still seeing the relationship from a very different position
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: than the people watching it from the outside. Over the
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: next week or two, however, things began to change. Alex
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: and Jordan continued arguing, and during one confrontation, Jordan snapped
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: the SIM card from his phone in half. Alex said
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: something finally clicked for him. Right then and there. He
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: thought about the warnings that he'd been hearing from his
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: family and from his friends, and he realized that perhaps
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: they were right, so this time he ended the relationship.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: The reaction from his family was immediate. After spending so
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: long trying to convince Alex that something was wrong, they
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: were relieved that the relationship was finally over, and Alex
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: seemed determined to move on, at least until the moment
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Jordan told him that she was pregnant. Now, the pregnancy,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: which was in fact real in case you were wondering,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: did not immediately bring them back together. Alex told Jordan
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: that he would in fact step up and take responsibility
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: for his child being there as a father, but he
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: did not want to resume their relationship, So for much
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: of the pregnancy they remained apart, and there was a
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: lengthy period in which Alex and Jordan had little or
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: no contact. Now, their son, Thomas J known as TJ,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: was born in May of twenty fourteen, making both Alex
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: and Jordan parents while they were still only eighteen years old.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: For a time, Alex also had very little contact with
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: his son TJ. Too, but that began to change when
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Jordan actually reached out to his mom Ged and asked
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: whether she wanted to to meet her grandson. Now, whatever
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: feelings Ged had about Jordan, TJ was in fact still
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: her grandson, and so she agreed. So Jordan arrived at
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: the Skiel home with the baby, and Ged quickly formed
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: a bond with TJ. Now, more importantly, for what happened next,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Jordan herself seemed different. She appeared to have settled down
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: since becoming a mother, and Alex's family began wondering whether
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: the difficult teenager they remembered had matured. Their opinion softened
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: enough that Ged actually encouraged Alex to consider giving Jordan
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: another chance. But before he was willing to do that, however,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: Alex wanted the opportunity to actually meet his son properly,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: so arrangements were made for him to see TJ without
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Jordan being present, and Alex even brought his grandfather along
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: with him for support because the two of them were
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: quite close now. The meeting went well, and Alex quickly
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: became attached to his little boy he wanted to be
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: his father always did, and as TJ became a larger
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: part of Alex's life, Jordan naturally began returning into it
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: as well. The reconciliation between them did happen gradually, though.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Jordan began spending more time with the Skiel family and
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: eventually even moved into their home, and this was not
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: a situation where Alex's parents were continuing to warn him
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: against her while he ignored them. No, by this point,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: they all seemed to believe Jordan had changed. Everyone seemed
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: to be getting along. Alex finally had a relationship with
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: his son, and the problems that defined the couple's teenage
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: relationship appeared to have settled down. Alex and Jordan eventually
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: became a couple again, even making the relationship Facebook official
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: on January first. For Alex, there was now far more
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: reason to make the relationship work than there had been
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: the first time around. He was no longer simply trying
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: to hold on to his first girlfriend. He had his
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: son TJ to think about, and for what seemed like
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: the first time, he actually had that family life that
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: he wanted. Gradually, though, some of the old problems began
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: to return. Jordan again became suspicious about other women, including
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: the same girl who had caused much of the tension
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: at Alex's eighteenth birthday party. Eventually, another argument involving her
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: broke out between Jordan and Alex's family. This time Jordan responded, though,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: by packing her belongings along with TJ's belongings to and
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: making plans to leave. Now that placed Alex in an
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: entirely different position. If Jordan walked out of the house,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: his son was going with her, and Alex believed that
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: if he stayed behind with his parents, Jordan would stop
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: him from seeing TJ. And he had already experienced what
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: it was like to spend part of his while son's
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: life away from him. He didn't want that again, so
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: faced with that possibility, Alex that he was going to
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: so At nineteen years old, Alex packed his things and
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: left his family home with Jordan and TJ to move
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: in with Jordan's parents. From his point of view, he
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: was choosing to remain with his son before his parents. However,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: the argument marked the beginning of a separation far greater
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: than the ordinary distance that comes with a child moving
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: away from home. Now, leaving his family home didn't immediately
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: mean Alex disappeared from his family life, though, but the
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: distance between them soon began to grow more and more,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: as Jordan now had far more control over who Alex
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: spoke and had time with, and even how easily other
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: people could reach out to him. Now, the close family
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: life that she had once questioned was no longer surrounding
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: him every day, and the people who had previously challenged
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: her behavior, well, they were no longer in that same house,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: and one of the first things to change was Alex's
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: phone changed his number, cutting off one of the easiest
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: ways for his friends and family to contact him. Then
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: his PlayStation, his gaming console, was also thrown away too. Now,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: for some people, losing a gaming console might seem rather insignificant,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: but for Alex it wasn't just about games, because it
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: was another way he actually could spend time and communicate
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: with friends.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well you're chatting and playing the games with friends, exactly.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's almost, in all honesty, a social media platform,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: and it was removed. So this was another wrote back
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: that people knew they could come to and connect with them,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: but it was now gone. His actual social media became
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: increasingly difficult as well. Jordan took control of Alex's Facebook page, and,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: according to his family, messages began appearing that didn't sound
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: like him at all. A separate Facebook account was even
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: created in his name, with even his surnames spelt incorrectly. Apparently,
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: an abuse of messages were sent to people Alex had
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: once been very close to. It was as if Alex
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: himself was telling people that he wanted nothing more to
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: do with them, but his family didn't believe these messages
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: for a second. It didn't sound like Alex. They knew
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: it couldn't be him. His mother became desperate enough to
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: try reaching out to her son through his bank account
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: because there was no other means left. She transferred just
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: one pound to him through mobile banking, not because he
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: needed the money, but because the transaction allowed her to
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: attach a message to it. She used that small transfer
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: simply to tell Alex that she loved him, but the
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: response that came back simply told her to stay away.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: Holy, this is not this is really not good.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: For Alex's family, there was little they could do with
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: any of this. They suspected Jordan was behind at least
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: some of the communication, but Alex was in fact an adult.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: If messages bearing his name said he did not want contact,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: the family couldn't force their way back into his life
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: if that's not what he wanted. Meanwhile, Alex was being
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: told a bit of a different story about his family now.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Jordan found particularly cruel ways to exploit the separation between
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: him and his family, and one of the cruelest examples
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: involved Alex's grandfather, who I mentioned was very close with Alex.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: See while Alex was upstairs in a bedroom, Jordan came
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: into the room and told him that her mother had
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: just received word that his grandfather died. Alex was very
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: close with his grandfather, and the news absolutely devastated him.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: For roughly two hours, he cried and grieved, repeatedly saying
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: how sorry he was that he never got the chance
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: to say goodbye.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: At one point, Jordan mentioned that he should go downstairs
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: and speak with her mother about what happened. Then, after
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Alex had spent hours believing his grandfather was dead, Jordan
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: suddenly asked why he cared so much. Alex didn't understand
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: the question. Of course he cared. He just lost his grandfather.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: And that's when Jordan told him the truth. His grandfather
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: wasn't dead. There's not been a death. She made the
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: story up. She just allowed him to sit there, grieve
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: someone who was still alive and believe he was dead
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: when he wasn't.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: Holy shit, this chick is unhinged.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was seriously like a cruel joke, if you
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: can even call it a joke at all. But to Jordan,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: it was just a means to interfere with the emotional
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: connection that he still had with his family and manipulate
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: him and demean him in any way possible and just.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: Let him grieve for hours, knowing that this was just
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: a lie. Ooh okay, that is nasty.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Meanwhile, the family continued to try and find ways to
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: reach Alex. They knew Alex and Jordan were living somewhere
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: around Stuartbury, a village south of Bedford, England, and with
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: the help of someone familiar with the area, they drove
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: around looking for anything that might identify where the couple
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: was living. Then Alex's brother George, as they were searching,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: noticed an elephant decoration in the window of one of
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: the houses, and Jordan loved elephants. The family thought maybe
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: this could be the house. They approached the house knocked
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: on the door, but instead of an answer, the lights
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: inside began to go off. The house became dark around them.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: At one point, a downstairs light briefly came back on,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: and though they could make out Alex's silhouette inside, there
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: was no answer at the door. Forged Alex's mother, the
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: experience left her in an almost impossible position. She wanted
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: her son back, but everything suggested that Alex wanted nothing
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: to do with them, and eventually she had to accept
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: that she couldn't make him speak to her. Now another
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: side of things, the isolation began affecting Alex's independence. Jordan
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: took possession of his wallet and interfered with his employment.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: See Alex had a job that he enjoyed, but Jordan
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: did not approve of it, and he was forced to
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: eventually leave it. And when she attended university, because she
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: was going to school, Alex was expected to go with
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: her rather than remain at the house. So, according to Alex,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: the reason was simple. Jordan was worried that if he
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: was left behind by himself, he might use the opportunity
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: to visit his parents, so instead he was made to
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: accompany her to university and wait while she attended her classes.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Holy frig By this point, much of what had once
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: made Alex independent had been absolutely stripped away. He had
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: limited access to money, his contact with friends and family
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: had been reduced, and even time alone could be difficult
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: to come by. From the perspective of everyone outside the relationship, though,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Alex seemed to be willingly abandoning the people he loved,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: but inside, his world became increasingly controlled by Jordan. Eventually,
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Alex and Jordan moved into a place of their own
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: in Stuartbury. For roughly the first month, Alex remembered life
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: there as being pretty good. Actually. The couple were building
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: a home together, raising tj and even discussing plans of
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: expanding their family together because they decided they wanted another child.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: After everything that had happened between them, Alex had reason
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: to believe they might finally have the family life that
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: he was trying to hold together throughout all this turmoil.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: But the control Jordan exercised over him didn't disappear with
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: the move, though, in fact, with the privacy of their
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: own home. Not long after the move, the relationship inside
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: the house became physically violent one night, in particular, when
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Jordan became angry because Alex had not done something the
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: exact way that she wanted When he went to bed
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: after the argument ended, Jordan laid beside him, waiting with
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: a glass beer bottle clutched in her hand for the
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: moment that he fell asleep, and when he did, without warning,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: she struck him over the head with it. Now, Alex
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: eventually defended himself and managed to take the beer bottle away,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: but it didn't end the attack. Jordan simply found something
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: else to use, which was a hammer. Jordan used the
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: hammer to strike Alex on several different parts of his body,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: including his shins, arms, and even on his head. The
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: hammer remained in the house for weeks after that, before
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: Alex finally found an opportunity to get rid of it.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: He took it, ran outside, and threw it into a
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: field opposite the house, believing he had at least removed
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: one of the things that was being used against him,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: but another object just replaced it. Pieces of wood and
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: parts of a wardrobe were then used to hit him
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: after that. At another point, Jordan used part of a
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: pl plastic pole that had broken in half. It was
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: from like a soccer or football I should say, sorry,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: a football goal post or something, but either way, it
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: was this plastic pole and one end was left jagged
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: because it was broken, and Jordan even began trying to
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: stab Alex with it.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: Ho, this is just okay because she's also like raising
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: a child, correct, this is the house that she's raising
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: a child in.
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: Indeed, Ah okay.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know, maybe we'll get to this, but like,
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: is this kid in danger as well or is it
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: kind of just all put on Alex it's.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: As far as as far as my research and everything
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: that I found, it's all put onto Alex.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: Huh, which I mean isn't good still, But like frig okay, okay,
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: this is hard to listen to now.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Ultimately, though, the particular objects may have changed things that
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: were used to assault him. But by this stage almost
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: anything available inside the home was potentially a weapon that
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: could be used against him. But that wasn't all. See,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Alex was also increasingly restricted inside the house too. For example,
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: he was made to sleep on the floor rather than
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: in the bed. It was something that continued for eight months.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: He didn't even have normal bedding like a blanket for
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: himself either. He would just wear his same clothes that
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: had been wearing during the day and sleep in them,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: sometimes for several days at a time, and then he'd
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: use other clothes as a makeshift blanket and pillow. And
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: since Alex had been cut off from the people he
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: would ordinarily reach out to for help, had little control
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: over money, and had already been convinced that leaving could
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: costume his relationship with his son TJ. He didn't have
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: anywhere to turn. In fact, Jordan also made the consequences
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: of trying to escape explicit because, according to Alex, Jordan
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: told him that if he ever attempted to leave, she
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: would flat out kill him. So with the threat of
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: death from Jordan, Alex stayed and the violence continued to escalate.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: But soon after using bottles, hammers, and other blunt objects,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: Jordan began using knives too. She would strike him with
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: a knife, almost as if it were another blunt weapon
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: for hitting him, except the blades left deep cuts and
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: slashes in his skin, and those wounds were then left
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: without proper medical treatment. By this point, Alex was learning
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: to live around the attacks rather than expecting them to stop,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: and the abuse was just becoming more frequent. In fact,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: Alex even described reaching a point where being attacked was
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: no longer an unusual event. It became part of everyday
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: life for him. Sometimes he would sleep and then Jordan
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: would strike him. He remembered waking up after being hit
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: in the head, looking at himself and seeing blood. At
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: other times, the injuries were to his arms, hands, legs,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: or face, but of course it didn't stop. Things like
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: access to food was also being controlled. Alex was not
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: eating properly because he, as he later explained, well, Jordan
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: just didn't let him. With his movements restricted and his
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: access to money limited, getting food for himself was not
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: necessarily an option, and gradually the effects began to show
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: on his body. Now, when people outside the house noticed
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: things like his injuries, Alex didn't tell them Jordan was
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: actually responsible. He brushed these questions aside and claimed that
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: he had hurt himself. However, neighbors could often hear arguments
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: and disturbances from inside their home, and some began to
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: suspect that something else was seriously going on. Something was wrong,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: but Alex still continued with these explanations of it was him,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: he was doing it to himself. Now. One particularly serious
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: incident happened during a trip to London around November, when
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: Alex and Jordan had gone to see a concert. Alex
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: woke up to the shock of boiling water being poured
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: on his back. His skin was badly burned as a result,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: but instead of receiving proper medical treatment and attention, like
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: all the other incidents, he was just left trying to
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: manage the injury himself. While walking around the city with
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: the burns under his shirt, Alex begged Jordan to let
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: him stop at a pharmacy so he can get some
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: treatment for it, And thankfully, he eventually was able to
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: obtain some cream and applied it himself, desperate for anything
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: that might ease the pain.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, the kettle of boiling water didn't stay an isolated incident.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: Alex described Jordan keeping boiling water at the ready during
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: the night, kept reheating it whenever it became cold. Sometimes
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: the water was thrown over him while he was sleeping,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: burning his arms, back and legs. And yet Alex couldn't
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: go to a doctor. He couldn't make an appointment for anything.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: He wasn't allowed to. Even if he did, he would
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: have to explain what had happened, which, in his mind,
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: jeopardized losing access to his son. Still more, relentless assaults
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: continued alongside these burns. On one occasion, Jordan attacked Alex
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: with a hair brush, striking him hard enough to break
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: one of his teeth. And without money, transport, or freedom
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: to arrange a dental treatment, Alex dealt with the problem himself.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: He was forced to pull out the damaged tooth on
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: his own.
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, gracious, what the actual fuck is happening here?
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's difficult to listen to. It blows my mind.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: I know that people can be treating someone else like this,
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: especially a partner, someone you're supposed to love and care for.
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like the father of your kid. Yeah, I don't
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: know the whole time, like run, run, run, but like, yeah,
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: she has the fact of them or access to their child.
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: Is like what she's kind of using basically his entire life.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's so convoluted and difficult. Like you can say, run,
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: it's so easy. But as any victim of any sort
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: of abuse situation knows, it's not that simple.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: You can't just run. Oh my gosh, I know from
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: like someone just sitting here listening. You know you want
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: it to be like run, run, but yeah, you do
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: know that they can't.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, by this point, Jordan had lost a substantial
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: amount of weight. He would eventually describe losing several stones
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: over the course of the abuse, which, for clarification, one
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: stone is equivalent to fourteen.
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: Pounds oooh okay.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: Combined with untreated wounds, repeated blows, and poor living conditions
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: the lack of food also like all of it, it
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: meant he was extremely frail. Alex could feel that something
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: was happening in his body. In his words, it was
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: beginning to shut down. Still, leaving did not seem so simple.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: Alex remained deeply concerned that his son TJ might disappear
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: from his life. Jordan had even threatened to kill him
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: if he tried to leave, if you recall that, And
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: by this stage many of the practical roots out of
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: the house. They were already gone, But there were some
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: moments when Alex's family came close to breaking through that isolation.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: At around two thirty one morning in February of twenty seventeen,
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: Graham received something that he had desperately wanted for so long,
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: a call from Alex himself. His son was reaching out
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: and asking for help. Now. Graham immediately went to the house,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: but when he arrived the lights turned out. He knocked
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: heavily on the door, trying to get Alex to come out,
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: only for Alex to eventually shut him out and tell
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: him to go away. Police were soon called. They entered
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: the house to investigate, and when officers came back outside, though,
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: they told Graham that Alex and Jordan had been arguing,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: but things were fine now from what Alex's family understood. Afterwards,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: police found no clear disclosure of abuse that allowed them
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: to remove him from the situation. Alex maintained the same
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: kind of explanation he'd been giving to other people that
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: he was whatever injuries were a result of his own doing,
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: and Jordan was able to present a very different picture
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: of their relationship. Police did, however, mention that Alex appeared
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: to be walking with a limp, but beyond that they
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: knew nothing else. For his family, it was another deeply
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: frustrating encounter. They suspected something was wrong, something had gone
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: as far as bringing police to his home, and still
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: they just watched the opportunity disappear as Alex remained inside
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: with his abuser Jordan.
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: Oh, like so close but still so far.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, just as the couple had planned, they had
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: a second child, a daughter named Iris, and she was
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: born in May of twenty seventeen.
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: Okay, that bothers me, like quite badly actually, because this
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: I maybe the kids are being looked after, but it's
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: a terrible environment. It has to be a terrible environment.
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: They're seeing things, yeah, and I can't picture them being
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: taken care of super well well regardless, Like I don't know.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: I think it's a huge manipulation situation. I believe that
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: Jordan is wanting to create this family, have children to
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: manipulate Alex into staying and keep control over his emotions
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: and actions. Jordan is doing all this, in my opinion,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: for exactly that, because Alex wants a family. He's there
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: for his son, and now he's got to be there
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: not only for his son but also his daughter. So
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: Alex wants a family. I believe Jordan wants control and
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: kids allow her control over Alex. That's what I see.
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: Okay, But if you are such a terrible person that
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: you can treat Alex this way, yeah, you cannot be
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: the best mom either.
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: Oh there's small.
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: Way I can see that, Like how you can have
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: that parallel?
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: No, I agree with you. Now, I'm sure Alex is
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: doing his absolute best to care.
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: For the kids in his condition, in his condition wild.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: But that only goes so far because he he's suffering,
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: which means what how far can he go as far
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: as caring for this kids when he can't hardly care
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: for himself.
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, his body is like starting to shut down.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah. In fact, my next sentence here is but then
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: Alex's condition was becoming increasingly difficult to conceal because he
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: is deteriorating. But still there was nothing done. No one
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: stepped up, no one changed the situation, and that was that.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: Now by the beginning of June, Alex was living with
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: the accumulated effects of months of violence. He was badly underweight,
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: had untreated or poorly treated injuries, serious burns, His clothes
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: were rarely changed, and he had spent months sleeping on
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: the floor. Still he was insisting to people outside the
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: home that Jordan was not responsible. Then, during the first
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: week of June twenty seventeen, neighbors heard another disturbance, and
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: this time they called police. See during the early hours
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: of June third, another confrontation began inside their home. It
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: was around two in the morning when Alex tried to
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: get away from Jordan and keep her out of the bathroom.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: See Jordan had a large, serrated kitchen knife, and when
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: she came towards his head with it, Alex instinctively raised
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: his hand to protect himself. The blade, however, struck his
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: hand and wrist, leaving him with a severe injury. Alex
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: immediately knew that this wound was serious. The cut was
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: deep enough to damage the tendons in his hand, leaving
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: him unable to properly move and bend his fingers, and
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: the bleeding was extremely heavy. Alex later remembered looking at
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: the wound and being struck by just how quickly the
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: blood was flowing from it.
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: Oh so regardless, she's just basically gonna.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: Kill him with no immediate medical treatment, They tried to
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: control the bleeding by tightly wrapping the injury with a
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: football sock tied around his wrist. Now, the seriousness of
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: that wound was more than Alex knew. In fact, it
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: had come frighteningly close to being fatal because it was
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: only approximately one centimeter off of an artery, where if
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: it struck there, he likely would have bled to death.
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: Whooh yeah, well yeah, oh man, Okay, this is just
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: I don't know, this is so ridiculously hard to listen to,
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: because you just have this feeling that you want to help,
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: you know, or like, how could this be happening.
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: Inside the house? Meanwhile, there was blood throughout the bathroom area.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: The disturbance had been so loud that it carried beyond
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: the walls of their home and neighbors had grown accustomed
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: to even hearing these arguments from the property, but what
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: they heard that night was alarming enough for someone to
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: call authorities. At nine ninety nine, which is equivalent to
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: our nine one one, they could hear a man desperately
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: shouting for another person to get away from him and
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: stop hurting him, and police were notified of that and
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: were on their way. One of the officers who attended
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: the scene was Officer ed Finn, and when police arrived,
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: Jordan eventually answered the door and allowed them inside. Nothing
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: about her appearance was off or strange, and Officer Finn
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: even remembers her as being composed, casually dressed, without any
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: sort of disheveled appearance, you know, something that maybe he
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: might expect from a domestic dispute being brought to this
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: home for. But Jordan quickly offered an explanation for everything,
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: and that was that Alex had hurt himself bad. The
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: officer went upstairs and found Alex sitting near the top
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: of the stairs with a towel and that sock wrapped
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: around his injured arm. There was blood around him and
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: nearby was a large serrated kitchen knife. Officer Finn could
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: see that the wound on Alex's arm was not the
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: only injury to his body. Now, Jordan told police that
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: Alex had a history of hurting himself. When officers questioned Alex,
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: he supported her story. He said the injuries were his
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: own doing. Now that left officers in a very difficult position.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: They had arrived because a neighbor had hurt a man
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: apparently pleaing for someone to stop hurting him, and they
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: had found Alex bleeding with a large kitchen knife nearby,
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: and other visible injuries to his body. Yet the two
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: adults inside the house were telling a different explanation that
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: Alex himself was responsible for now, despite the truth, Alex's
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: injury was serious enough that it required medical attention, and
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: so he was taken to hospital. Doctor soon examined the
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: injury and began preparing him for surgery, But then Jordan
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: came to the hospital too, and before the operation could
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: take place, Alex left with her. Medical staff recognized right
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: away that something about the situation was off and very wrong.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: Nurses tried to persuade Alex to remain at the hospital
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: and receive the treatment that he needed, but as he
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: was leaving, even a consultant, which is the UK's version
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: of a senior specialist doctor, stopped him and directly questioned
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: whether he was safe to go home. Alex said he was,
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: but the only reason he was lying like this is
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: because he was so scared of what Jordan might do
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: if he told anyone the truth. So despite the police attendants,
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: the blood, the knife, the wound, and the concerns of
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: medical staff, Alex walked out of the hospital and returned
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: home with Jordan.
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: Ooh, this is not good. The fact that he needed
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: medical attention and she still is just like come home.
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yikes. Now, for Officer ed Finn, this whole incident
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: didn't sit right with him. The explanations that he had
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: been given that night did not erase what he had
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: seen or what neighbors had reported hearing. He tried to
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: get a hold of Alex again afterwards, but was unable
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: to reach him, and without Alex disclosing what had happened,
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: there was still only so far the officer could take
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: his suspicions. Then, one week later, another call connected to
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: the Stuartsbury address appeared on the police system and Officer
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: Finn saw it come up and volunteered to go back.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: It was on Saturday, June tenth, twenty seventeen, and this
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: time Officer Finn saw Alex under very different circumstances. It
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: was daylight and the extent of his condition was much
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: easier to see. Alex was extremely thin and pale, his
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: clothes were filthy, and there were numerous injuries all across
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: his body. Taken together with everything Officer Finn had seen
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: the previous week, it was much more obvious to him
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: that this wasn't a series of unrelated or even just
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: self inflicted wounds. He knew Alex was being abused. Officer
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: Finn then separated Alex from Jordan and began speaking to
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: Alex away from her. But even then Alex continued to
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: say the same explanations he'd given before. He insisted he
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: caused his own injuries, but Officer Finn knew better. As
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: they spoke, he began pointing out details that did not
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: fit Alex's account. Some of the wounds, he said, well,
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: they were believed to be consistent with him defending himself.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: He also noticed that Alex struggled to look him in
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: the eye while answering some of the questions. He looked
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: at Alex and told him that these kind of injuries
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: were not new to police and it was clear he
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: had been trying to protect himself. It didn't matter though
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: Alex continued denying it, but still Officer Finn didn't give up. Eventually,
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: he decided that questioning him inside the house, inside the
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: very walls where he was being abused, was not going
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: to work. Alex was still in that environment, Jordan was
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: still there too, and with this situation as frightening as
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: it was for an abuse individual, he needed to be removed.
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: He knew that was the key, so Officer Finn told
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: him to get dressed and get some basic belongings, including shoes,
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: a jacket, his wallet before taking him outside. He took Alex,
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: seated him inside the police car and parked there in private.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: He tried again. He told Alex that the situation could
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: not continue, that Alex needed help, that Jordan needed help,
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: their children needed help. But Alex still said he was responsible,
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: that he was hurting himself. In that moment, Officer Finn
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: knew he needed to make sure that it was just
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: the two of them. He switched off his body camera.
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: There was no longer recording running. There was no longer.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: Jordan sitting nearby, Officer Finn made it very clear that
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: the conversation now was only between the two of them,
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: and then again he asked Alex to tell him what
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: really happened that personal one on one without any way
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: of Jordan ever being able to see first hand. What
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: Alex said struck something inside of him, because this time
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: he didn't lie anymore. This time, Alex admitted the truth.
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: He said Jordan had been hurting him, even after finally
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: saying it out loud. Though Alex was frightened of what
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: would happen if Jordan discovered that he'd told officers, he
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: asked Officer Finn not to tell her that the information
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: had come from him. He begged that police say neighbors
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: had provided evidence against her instead. It seemed that after
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: years of having his behavior controlled and being threatened over
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: and over again, things that you know, she's gonna leave,
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: she's going to take his son away, she's going to
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: kill him. Even being protected inside a locked police car
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: could not take away the fear of those things that
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: were instilled inside of Alex by Jordan. For Officer Finn,
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: the admission changed the situation completely. Police now had Alex
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: telling them directly that Jordan was in fact responsible for
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: his injuries, and so Jordan Worth was arrested. Officer Finn
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: later remembered how strangely ordinary she seemed during the journey
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: to the police station. In fact, Jordan asked how long
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: she was likely to be there at the police station
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: for apparently thinking that it was going to take maybe
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: an hour or so only.
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: Oh, she needs to just shut up. But can I
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: just say, like Officer Finn, he gave me goosebumps. Yeah,
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: he's incredible. Alex needed an Officer Finn.
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, spoiler alert, we have two bad asses of the day.
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: Officer Finn is one and Alex.
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: Now, I do want to say one more thing in
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: regards to this car ride to the police station, because Jordan, sorry,
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: Jordan's like, oh, how long am I going to be there?
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: Like an hour or so? Yeah? Officer Finn was like,
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: it's probably going to be longer than.
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: That, yeah, probably.
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Now. Alex meanwhile, was finally removed from the house,
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: and once doctors were able to properly assess him, the
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: seriousness of his condition became clear. His body had been
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: weakened by prolonged lack of food, repeated injuries, and the
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: burns that had gone without adequate treatment. Some of his
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: wounds had become infected, and Alex was informed, well, he
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: was informed something by medical professionals that paints just how
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: grave a situation was in his physical condition. They estimated
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: he was approximately only ten days away from dying without
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: medical treatment. A little over a week longer and he
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: would have been dead.
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm sure that was, you know, shocking to him. Really.
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah. That night police arranged for him to stay at
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: a hotel after he was treated. On the way there,
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: an officer stopped by and bought him some McDonald's to eat.
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: It was an ordinary takeout meal, right, something that we
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: all take for granted, but for Alex, who had gone
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: for so long without any sort of proper eating at all,
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: he later said it was one of the best meals
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: he'd ever eaten.
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Well, Ben, okay, I could just start
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: solving now that is I know, that's that's something.
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: The following morning, after Alex had slept in a bed,
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: he went downstairs in the hotel for breakfast. Him were
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: other guests dressed neatly for the day. Well, Alex was
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: still wearing the same bloodstained clothes that he'd been found
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: in because he had nothing else to wear. His injuries
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: were bandaged, and his appearance stood out starkly against the
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: people around him. And now this might seem like a
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: sad moment, a disheveled, beaten, abused young man in his
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: condition coming down into a hotel lobby like this, But
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: no matter how tragic this site was, Alex didn't care,
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: because this moment wasn't sad for him. See Alex sat
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: down and ate breakfast overlooking the Bedford River, physically separated
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: from the woman who had made beating a daily routine
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: for him. But here he had food, he could do
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: what he wanted, and most importantly, he was safe. Sure,
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: Alex may have been a sad sight for people at
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: that moment, but he was free. It was the farthest
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: thing from sadness for him.
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: When it came to his family, they still didn't know
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: the full extent of what had happened. For two years,
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: they had received messages telling them to stay away, but
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: now they received the call they'd been waiting for. Alex
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: was safe. The following day, on Sunday, June eleventh, twenty seventeen,
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: Alex sat down with police and began to formally explain
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: what had happened to him.
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: With his wounds.
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: Bandaged, he began to describe the relationship that police had
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: only seen fragments of during their visits at the house,
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: and there was a great deal for investigators to document.
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: Police also interviewed Jordan. During questioning, officers began putting specific
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: allegations to her, including the two recent incidents on June
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: third and June tenth, and her answers were particularly important
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: because she didn't simply deny that the violence occurred. See
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: when questioned about using things like hot water against Alex,
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: Jordan admitted that she had thrown it over him. Police
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: also questioned her about the knife injury. Jordan acknowledged that
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: she swung the knife at Alex and that the blade
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: had cut him, although she disputes aspects of how the
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: incident had happened and the severity that she had intended
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: trying to downplay her involvement even though she admitted her
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: involvement now. Ultimately, the investigation resulted in Jordan facing a
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: large number of allegations. On September twenty seventeen. In fact,
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: she was charged with seventeen counts, including offenses related to
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: the serious physical injuries inflicted on Alex and controlling core
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: course of behavior. Now, the latter offense was still relatively
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: new in England and Wales at the time, having come
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: into force in December of twenty fifteen, and allowed prosecutors
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: to address a pattern of behavior within an intimate relationship,
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: rather than treating every incident as though it existed separately.
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: Basically now, the case ultimately reached Luton Crown Court, Jordan
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: pleaded guilty to controlling or coursive behavior in an intimate relationship,
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: wounding with intent and causing grievous bodily harm, and on
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: April thirteenth, twenty eighteen, she was sentenced to two seven
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: year prison terms for this serious violence, which were ordered
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: to run concurrently, along with a consecutive six month sentence
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: for the controlling or course of behavior. Her total sentence
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: therefore was seven and a half years. She was also
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: made subject to an indefinite restraining order preventing her from
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: contacting Alex.
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: Okay, but just wait here. Ten days later she would
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: have gone a hell of a lot more time. Yeah,
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: so that isn't enough it's not.
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: I believe she should have been charged with attempted murder. Yeah, like,
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: I don't believe she should have been able to plea that. No, No, Like,
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: how is that not attempted murder?
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: Sikes? Because yeah, that's not enough time for Alex to
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: like be able to live his life. And then what
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: she's out and wants to have access to the kids
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: and shit like oh no, man.
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: No now. According to Bedfordshire Police, the prosecution made Jordan
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: Worth the first female offender in the United Kingdom to
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: be convicted of controlling or coursive behavior. The sentence was
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: subsequently referred to the Court of Appeal under the Unduly
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: Lenient Sentence Scheme. In June of twenty eighteen. The court
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: accepted that seven and a half years was an extremely
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: lenient sentence, but determined that it did not meet the
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: legal threshold required to increase it. Jordan did not attend
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: that hearing, and the original sentence remained in place. Now,
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: if you're doing the math on your own already, Jordan
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: is in fact out of prison now. In fact, she
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: didn't even so her full seven and a half year
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: prison sentence, of course not. She was later released early
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: with multiple sources placing her release in twenty twenty two
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: after serving roughly half of her sentence. For Alex, however,
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: the most important change had already happened before any court
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: became involved. Even he was back with his family, The
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: people who had spent two years trying to reach him
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: finally learned what had been happening while they were being
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: told that Alex hated them and wanted them out of
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: his life. He was also reunited with his children, who
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: he was so afraid of losing, and began the much
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: longer process of recovering from his injuries and psychological effect
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: of the relationship. Alex eventually decided not to remain anonymous
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: in his story either. He began speaking publicly about what happened,
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: including appearing in the twenty nineteen BBC three documentary Abused
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: by My Girlfriend. He became an ambassador for the Mankind Initiative,
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: which supports male victims of domestic abuse, and began working
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: with professionals and police to improve recognition of men experiencing abuse. Football,
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: which had also been a very large part of his life,
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: was something that returned as well as he began coaching it.
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: One of the questions Alex repeatedly encountered after telling his
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: story was deceptively simple and something we already even discussed.
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: Why didn't he just leave? For anyone who finds themselves
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: being abused, there's no simple answer. For Alex by the
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: time the violence had become extreme, leaving ment overcoming years
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: of isolation, threats, financial control, and fear about what would
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: happen to his children. He had also tried leaving Jordan
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: years earlier, only for their relationship to become intertwined once
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: again through him becoming a father, but that experience shaped
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: the advice he later gave people trying to help someone
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: in an abusive relationship. Simply telling someone to leave. Simply
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: telling a victim to leave the situation, he explained, could
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: add a whole other source of pressure to a person
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: already living in an intensely controlled environment. Instead, he encourages
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: people to make it clear that help is available, and
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: to leave a road or a route or means of
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: help open for the victim to take when they're ready
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: and able to do so. Alex also wanted his case
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: to challenge the assumption that domestic abuse had a particular
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: appearance or could only happen in one direction. Jordan had
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: been academically successful, she had attended university. She came from
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: a supportive family, and could present herself as polite and
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: unfare threatening. Alex was a young man who loved football
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: and had once been surrounded by a close group of
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: friends and a close knit family. None of that prevented
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: what happened inside their home. When Officer ed Finn first
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: entered that house on June third, Alex had been sitting
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: near the top of the stairs, bleeding, and still told
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: police that he did it himself. It was only when
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: he was removed from the house, separated from Jordan, and
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: given a private opportunity to speak, that he finally finally
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: told the truth. Years later, Alex described the difference that
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: moment made in much simpler terms. Once Jordan was sent
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: to prison, he could finally look over his shoulder again
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: without being afraid for the first time in five years.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: That meant he was finally free. And that's the story
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: of Alex Skeel.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: Oh. I don't even know what to say. Yeah, that
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 2: story is just horrific, heartbreaking, horrible, but also like I guess,
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 2: kind of nice at the end. Okay, I just have
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 2: to say I am impressed that he even went down
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: and had breakfast. That like really impressed me for some reason. Yeah,
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 2: that he had like the courage to do that. And
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 2: I think this is awesome that he isn't remaining anonymous
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 2: and is now kind of like an advocate, right or
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: is an advocate? Yes, because Yeah, a lot of people,
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 2: I don't know, in this world we live in, people
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 2: think things are black and white, and there's just so
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 2: much gray area exactly and so very much so a
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: female could be abusing their male partner one hundred percent obviously,
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 2: like it just happened here.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: But it's not only that, like Alex is saying, it's
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: it's not just that a female male partner can abuse
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: her male partner. It's that abuse can happen in wealthy families,
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: well off families, people that look nice, prim and properly. Yeah,
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: people you don't expect. Just because your perception says, you know, what,
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: these rough things happened to rough people, doesn't mean it's true.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: It can happen to anyone anywhere, anytime, And that's what
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: he's advocating for.
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, See, I think I don't know. I do believe
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 2: like people who come across fine or whatever can be
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 2: terrible people. I kind of already I mean, because of
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: our podcast and all these stories. I feel like I
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: very much so already kind of knew that, you know,
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: like people are horrible. They can be horrible no matter
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 2: the way they look or whatever. So but yeah, the
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 2: fact that he got out of there, oh my gosh,
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 2: and that officer, well, the story is unreal.
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: It is so. First and foremost, I mean I already
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: kind of said this, but first and foremost, Officer ed
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: finn one and ten percent are badass of the day
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: for being the officer to go above and beyond and
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: do the right thing, do his job, and make sure
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: he helped when help was needed. We need more officers
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: in the world like Officer Finn oh one d percent.
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 2: Because he could have just been like no, like he said,
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 2: he's fine, yeah, I'm going to leave.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: And second, Alex is also our badass of the day,
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: not only for what he went through, not only for
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: what he survived, but for what he's doing after the fact,
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: for making sure he's looking after his kids. He's I
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: fully believed believe he survived, not for his own accord,
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: he's surviving for other people. He's surviving for his kids,
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: He's surviving to help other victims of abuse and other
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: survivors of abuse. So major badasses the day in today's story.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, he is obviously an incredible dad. Yeah, so
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 2: those kids are pretty lucky to have him.
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's entirely possible that Jordan is listening to
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: this right now. And I just want to say, Jordan,
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: I hope you never have to ever go through what
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: you put Alex through.
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, that actually reminds me of one thing,
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: is I feel like that wasn't a long enough sentence
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 2: that she probably and like, I don't think prison situations
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: are often like the best environment. Yeah, and so I
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: kind of had. I just feel like she came out
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 2: of there a worst person. Probably. I hope that she
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 2: just never never ever sees Alex or the kids.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: Honestly, again, I agree, Yeah, she should have been charged
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: with attempted murder. At the very least she should be
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: behind bars for, in my opinion, minimal twenty five years.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 2: Well yeah, if you step back and think about that,
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 2: ten days later, she would have been charged with murder.
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: Not only that the knife slash was a sent she
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: almost killed him. At least twice over. The knife slash
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: was a centimeter off from making him bleed out because
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: he was not going to get medical treatment in time.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 2: It Yeah, it honestly. Yeah, that it's disturbing. Actually how
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: little time she got?
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah she served like five years, that's it.
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 2: Fuck, Like, how often do we talk about that at
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 2: the end day? Yeah, I just I don't know.
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: We live in such a fucked up system.
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 2: Stuff needs to change.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there needs to be so much change in this world.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: But where do you begin.
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we can only hope she's haunted for the rest
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 2: of her life though, Yeah, for what she's done.
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I hope the fact that she doesn't get to
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: see your kids. I hope that she doesn't get to
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: your kids, and I hope that haunts her. I hope
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: what she did to Alex Haunser, and I hope people
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: never let her forget. And I hope one day she
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: fucking burns for it. That's all I'll say.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 2: So until next time.
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: Until next thank you guys for being here. If you
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: want to check out more of the description of the podcast,
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: you can see our social media's website all that good stuff,
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: including Patreon. You get complete ads, free behind the scenes
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: all that good content over there. Feel free to join,
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: but if not, you're here. We appreciate it your support
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: on our independent podcast because it is only us. I
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: know you hate it when I say that, Nicole, only
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: us or just yes, just okay, there we go. Well,
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: it is us. It's the two of us. We are
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: the entirety of our team. There's no big network or
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: anyone pulling the strings. They don't tell us what to do.
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: It's us and you, and because you support us, we
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: get to keep it that way and keep doing this.
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: So thank you so much for your support. It goes
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: a long way. We appreciate you, and until next time,
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: stay wicked thing. Oh oh