Businessman was branded with irons and had lit cigarettes shoved up his nose when tortured by his lover because he refused her sex
Now the brave victim is sharing his story again to campaign for better help for male victims of domestic violence
A BUSINESSMAN who was branded with a red hot iron and tortured by his former girlfriend because her refused to have sex with her claims not enough is being done to help male victims of domestic violence.
Ian McNicholl was subjected to years of assaults, including being badly beaten with a bar, having burning cigarettes pushed up his nostrils and being attacked with a hammer.
The 54-year-old claims that one time he even had boiling water poured over his genitals by petite partner Michelle Williamson.
During their 18-month relationship Ian says he endured repeated bouts of abuse that caused him serious injury, including cracked ribs, a fractured skull, broken cheekbones and a smashed up nose, reports the .
As a result he had to have surgery on several occasions.
He claims that most of the vicious attacks were triggered by him refusing to have sex with his violent partner.
Seven years after Michelle, who is now free, was jailed, Ian says not enough is being done to help the ever-growing number of battered husbands.
He believes that shocking plot lines in a number of TV soaps have helped to highlight the issue.
But he claims that despite 129,000 men contacting police about being abused across England and Wales - up until very recently there was not one refuge place for a man in London.
As a result he is hoping an all-day event being held in Walsall, West Mids, on November 16 by anti-household violence charity Mankind Initiative will give local men, silenced by the stigma of being battered by women, a much-needed voice.
Back in 2012, Ian met actor Alan Halsall, who plays mechanic Tyrone in Coronation Street, when he was at the centre of a battered husband plot line that gripped the nation.
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At the time Alan told the Birmingham Mail: “I’ve struggled to get my head around what Ian has told me because it’s not something I’ve experienced or heard about before.
“I’ve read case studies but it’s different hearing it first-hand – it brings home how terrible it actually is.
“It’s brave for Ian to speak out because there’s still a stigma attached. Not many men want to admit that it’s happened.”
Michelle, now 45 and from Wolverhampton, was handed a seven year prison sentence for causing grievous bodily harm in 2009 and is now free.
The abuse began four months after the pair met by chance at Birmingham’s New Street Station in 2006.
He says at times he feared for his life.
Typically, Michelle would horse-whip her partner with a mobile phone if he refused sex.
He told the paper: “She’d ram it in my face. She’d rant ‘You don’t love me enough, you have five minutes to be ready for sex’.
“That, of course, is the last thing on your mind. Then she’d say ‘You now have four minutes, three minutes.’
“At the end of five minutes she’d blocked out what she had done.”
“She was calmly ironing on one occasion when she pulled the plug and placed the iron on my left forearm and shoulder. She said ‘Stand up and take your t-shirt off or I’ll steam your face’.”
Ian, incredibly, did what she asked. He was then branded between the shoulder blades.
His ordeal only ended after a neighbour raised the alarm following an orgy of violence that saw Ian struck with a phone, a metal bar from a rowing machine and a hammer.
Michelle had warned her partner to blame bruises on fictitious heavies chasing an unpaid gambling debt.
Ian added: “In the police van, I gave a made-up description of two men. The officer asked me to roll up my sleeve and it was a real mess – it was purple all the way down to my fingers.
“He said ‘I don’t believe you, I believe the person who did this is inside that house right now’.
“As a kid, you blow up a balloon, then slowly let the air out and flatten it. That was what it felt like. Where I found the energy to say that ‘Yes’ I do not know. It took so much energy.”
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