WITH her body bound with wires, Trish Clark shook with nerves as she listened to the beeping machine.
But she wasn’t at the hospital undergoing tests, she was being forced to take a lie detector test by the man she loved.
Her controlling boyfriend, Melvyn Daniel, 53, demanded she take one after accusing her of cheating.
Not only that, he’d made her fork out the £400 to pay for it.
When he discovered the results were inconclusive, he flew into a rage, attacking the mum-of-two by smashing her head on the floor and throwing her phone at her face.
It was the first time he'd been violent, yet she stayed out of fear.
Months later, when she refused to undergo another test, he launched a 90-minute attack on Trish, from Edinburgh, Scotland.
Leaving her with horrific injuries, including multiple broken bones.
In February this year, Daniel pleaded guilty to GBH and intentional strangulation and was jailed for 40 months.
Now Trish, 51, who doesn't work, is bravely speaking out against the man who abused her in a bid to help other victims of domestic abuse.
She says: “I want others to recognise the red flags and get out of abusive relationships. I was lucky to escape with my life.”
Trish first met Daniel at work when she was 27. He was a doorman at a now-closed nightclub.
They became friends, embarking on a brief fling, before losing touch until four years later in 2002 when she bumped into them as she rode her horse along the road.
She says: ";As I trotted along the country road on my horse, a white van pulled up beside me.
"Doing a double take I realised it was an old flame."
She pulled over they had a brief chat and exchanged numbers.
For a few months they dated, but eventually split. "It just fizzled out," she says. She met someone else whom she had two daughters with.
Twenty years passed and at the end of 2020, she reached out to him on Facebook after learning a mutual friend had died.
The pair got back together with their first date taking place in a car park.
But on Valentine’s Day 2022, after around a year, he accused Trish of being with another man completely out of the blue.
She says: “Melvyn constantly accused me of cheating with an ex. It was constant. He'd accuse me of cheating with people we'd know and trawl dating websites, pointing out women that looked a bit like me and say they were me.
“No matter how many times I denied it and told him it was ridiculous, he didn’t believe me.”
In August of that year, he made her pay £400 to a private company to take a lie detector test to prove her ‘innocence’.
Sick of him accusing her, and wanting to prove her innocence once and for all, she took it.
While he waited in the car, she attended an office where a woman conducted the test.
Trish explains: “She put wires all over my body and began asking questions relating to an ex I used to see. He'd written the questions. She must have asked one over 100 times, in different ways.
"She wanted to know if I’d had any recent sexual contact with my previous partner.
“I felt physically sick. But I knew I hadn’t been unfaithful.”
Trish says: "Next morning, he locked me in his house while he went to a friend’s.
"Hours later, he came marching in, showing me an email on his phone. The test was inconclusive. My stomach dropped."
He said: 'You failed, so you’re a liar'."
But he agreed to give her another chance if she did one more test.
She said she would, but only when she could afford it. Despite this, the next morning, Daniel flew into a rage and smashed the phone across her face.
He banged Trish’s head off the floor. As she lay concussed, he snatched her phone, scanning her messages.
Women's Aid has this advice for victims and their families
If you are a victim of domestic abuse, SupportLine is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm to 8pm on 01708 765200. The charity’s email support service is open weekdays and weekends during the crisis – [email protected].
Women’s Aid provides a - available weekdays from 8am-6pm and weekends 10am-6pm.
You can also call the freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
She remembers: “Coming to, he whacked the mobile across my head and shouted ‘You s***’, squeezing his hands around my neck.
“My throat burned as I gasped for breath.”
When he finally let go, Trish bolted out the door, escaping in her car. As she pulled up outside the hospital, Daniel texted: 'Are you going to let them win?'
Feeling trapped, she didn’t know where to turn. Instead of getting checked over, she went home.
For two weeks Daniel bombarded her with calls and texts. Eventually, she gave in.
She says: “But when I went to his to reconcile, he attacked me again, punching me in the face. I managed to escape and attended A&E.”
There an X-ray revealed Trish had a broken nose. After a nurse asked how it happened, she broke down and cried.
The police were called and Trish gave a statement. Daniel was arrested that day and given bail.
But he claimed self-defence, accusing Trish of hurting him.
She says: “Worried it would be his word against mine, I dropped the charges.”
For two weeks, Daniel bombarded Trish with calls and texts, grovelling and promising never to hurt her until she went back to him. In August, believing him, she did. Two months, by October, he controlled her whole life.
"He would check my entire house to see if there were men hiding in cupboards," she says. "He would call me constantly. He would always ask me where I was."
He banned her from shopping with her daughters, and he blew up her phone with texts and calls whenever she was without him.
If she wasn’t staying at his home, he’d make her be on WhatsApp video calls 24/7, even when she slept, so he could check there were no men with her.
In January 2023, Daniel threatened to kill himself when Trish threatened to leave.
Six months later, in July, she woke up at his and he accused her of cheating again, demanding another lie detector test.
Trish says: “I told him I couldn’t afford to pay for one.
“Next thing I knew, he grabbed me around the neck and started strangling me on the bed.
"As I gasped for breath, he punched me in my right eye until I lost consciousness.”
Taken from the National Centre for Domestic Violence.
Domestic Abuse consists of any of the following:
Where the victim and perpetrator(s) are aged 16 or over and are “personally connected” to each other. It does not matter whether the behaviour consists of a single incident or a course of conduct. (
1 in 5 adults experience Domestic Abuse during their lifetime. This equates to: 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6-7 men.
Last year 2.4 million adults were victims (1.7 million women and 699,000 men).
Statistics from .
When Trish came to, Daniel pushed his knees into her ribs and then threw her against the bedroom wall.
She screamed and he threatened to 'snap her neck’.
“He dragged me downstairs, then knocked my teeth out.
“Then he told me he was putting me in the bath and I was terrified he’d drown me.”
So, while Daniel was distracted making sure the patio door was closed she managed to escape out the front door and ran to a neighbour’s.
Trish was rushed to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead via an ambulance.
There, an X-ray revealed she’d suffered broken eye sockets, a broken nose, smashed teeth, broken ribs, a gash above her right eyebrow and an injury to her arm.
After eight days on the run, Daniel was finally caught by the police and remanded in custody.
A year later, in May this year Daniel was jailed for just 40 months at Newcastle Crown Court.
Trish says: “Now, my physical injuries have healed, but I’ll never get over the mental scars.
“I suffer crippling night terrors where Mel’s pinning me to bed.
“Please, if you’re in an abusive relationship, seek help.”
