EXCLUSIVE My evil boyfriend kept me awake for four days, hit me and drove me into traffic. He even faked letters from social services accusing me of neglect. Now he's being released just 10 months into his sentence and I'm terrified for my children's safety
A mother-of-three has slammed the early release of her former abusive partner who controlled her life for 14 years.
Evil Kevin Jones, 43, isolated Lucy Buxton from friends and family, banned her from wearing revealing clothes, checked her phone constantly and even stopped her from getting her hair cut.
In March last year, after he drove their car into a main road, barely missing oncoming traffic, he was jailed for 3.5 years for driving a motor vehicle dangerously and harassment to put a person in fear of violence. He was also handed a life-long restraining order.
Yet, the thug will be released in August this year. Just ten months into his sentence.
Lucy, 35, from Derby, is terrified Jones will seek revenge and hurt her and their children.
With the Labour government's plans to free criminals recalled to custody after 28 days to prevent overcrowding prisons, Lucy feels completely let down.
She says: 'When I got to call a few weeks ago from the probation service, telling me Kev was due to be released early, I burst into tears.
'Ten months for a three -and- a- half year sentence? Is that all I was worth?
'I've had no time to heal, no time to recover and barely enough time to start enjoying my life without looking over my shoulder.
'Kevin abused me for 14 years and me and my children get just 10 months of freedom.
'He comes out of prison and we go back into one.
'The fear he will find us and hurt us is crippling.
'Where are our rights, our freedom? He can't be rehabilitated after that time, if ever.
'Hearing of Labour's plans makes me sick to my stomach.
'It's no deterrent for dangerous offenders like Kevin.
'Before we know it, abusers won't be monitored at all, meaning we'll be at extreme risk.
'It'll mean more women will die.
'The government will have blood on their hands.
'I'm disgusted. There's no justice.'
Lucy, started dating Jones in 2010 after meeting during a night out.
A few months later, they were living together.
Almost straight away, he began to control her.
Used to going out partying with her friends, Jones soon insisted on joining them.
Lucy says: 'One morning, I noticed some money missing.
'£100 had been withdrawn from my account.
'When I confronted Kev, he told me "We're together now, it's our money".
'My first serious relationship, I thought it was normal.'
Yet, the following year, when Lucy fell pregnant, Jones started drinking heavily.
One night, at seven months gone, he returned home, drunk.
When Lucy complained, he balled his hand into a fist.
She remembers: 'I was terrified and cowered in the corner as he shouted at me.'
Then, on New Year's Eve that year, Jones flipped again after Lucy complained he'd forgotten to put the bedding in the dryer.
He lunged at her and punched a kitchen cupboard above her head.
After their eldest son arrived in February 2012, Jones didn't lift a finger.
Instead, he spent most nights in the pub.
Lucy says: 'While I did all the childcare, he hated the attention I gave our baby.
'And when our second son was born in January 2013, if I asked him for help, he'd tell me to 'Get on with it'.'
Soon after Lucy discovered Jones had a gambling problem.
He'd whittled hundreds of pounds away on slot machines and horse races.
Then Jones began dictating what Lucy wore.
She explains: 'If anything was too revealing he'd question it. Tell me I looked silly.
'Soon after, he began checking my phone messages daily.
'Made me sit for hours while he read each one out loud.
'It was exhausting.'
When their youngest boy was born in 2018, Lucy claims she was barely surviving.
Many times, she attempted to end the relationship.
She would escape to her mum's, who lived down the street.
Yet Jones always wormed his way back in.
Lucy says: 'One day, I told him to leave.
'He did, but he snuck back into the house in the middle of night, woke me up and said 'Just remember I can get to you anywhere'.
'His threats horrified me. I didn't feel safe in my own home.
'After that, my family begged me to leave.
'But I'd made peace with myself that the only way I'd get out of the relationship was if one of us died.'
Months later, Lucy received an email supposedly from social services, telling her she was being investigated for child neglect.
But the letter was full of spelling and grammatical errors.
Lucy says: 'I quickly realised it was fake.
'Knew Kev was behind it.'
Eventually, Jones was in so much debt, Lucy struggled to pay the rent each month.
Three years passed and in July 2021, Lucy's sister gifted her a birthday voucher to get her hair done.
She remembers: 'Back at home, after cutting it just a few inches, Kev went berserk.
'Told me I looked ridiculous and didn't talk to me for days.
'Made any confidence I had left, vanish.'
Then, in September 2023, while their kids were at school, Lucy found drugs in her bedroom.
As she went to flush them down the toilet, Jones appeared.
She remembers: 'He pinned me against the wall and kneed me in the chest, winding me.
'He shouted at me to drop it. Unable to breathe, I did.
'That night, Kev refused to let me sleep.
'Pestered me to give him money.
'For four days, he kept me awake.
'Even threatened to get me sectioned.
'By this point, I was so sleep deprived I could barely function.'
The following year, in March 2024, Jones returned from an all-night bender.
After he accused Lucy of cheating, he locked the doors, putting the keys in his pocket.
For hours, while the kids tried to sleep, he ranted, checked Lucy's phone and refused to let her sleep.
The next morning, after dropping the boys at school, Jones drove at 100mph back home.
Lucy recalls: 'When I begged him to slow down, he punched me in the face.
'Started ranting that I was having an affair.
'Moments later, he pulled up on pavement and I fled.
'Kev gave chase and grabbed me by my hood.
'He threatened to kidnap our boys and that I'd never see them again.'
Terrified, Lucy agreed to get back into the car.
Minutes later they arrived home.
Yet he teared away in the car again.
Lucy says: 'I went out the front door and heard tyres screeching.
'Suddenly, Kev appeared and drove the car straight at me.
'I froze as he stopped, inches from my legs.'
Then Jones ordered Lucy back into the car.
She says: 'I was hysterical and asked Kev 'When will it end?'
'He laughed manically and replied 'When you're not alive anymore'.
'At that point, I knew he'd kill me.'
Moments later, Jones sped towards a busy dual carriageway into traffic.
Miraculously, nothing hit them.
Coming to a halt, Jones threw Lucy's phone and keys at her.
She managed to flee and called her mum, before collecting her sons from school.
Lucy called the police and Jones was arrested and remanded.
She says: 'Before I gave my statement at the station, I told the officer 'Let me say sorry to him'.
'After all he'd done, he still had a hold over me.'
In October 2024, Jones pleaded guilty to driving a motor vehicle dangerously and harassment to put a person in fear of violence.
With her hair cut into a bob, Lucy bravely attended his sentencing.
She says: 'I wanted him to know he didn't control me anymore.
'I read my victim impact statement, bravely staring him down.
'Finally have my voice and freedom back and I'm going to use it to help others.
'With those who are still in domestic abuse relationships, the new plans won't give them any confidence to come forward and report their abusers.
'They already feel like there's no help and Labour are cutting off any shred of hope they may have had.
'It's beyond comprehension and makes me so sad at the state of our justice system.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
26 minutes ago
- The Independent
DragonForce and Scattered Spider: Inside the hacker groups linked to M&S cyberattack
Marks & Spencer has finally reopened its online orders, months after a cyber attack which is set to cost the British high street retailer £300 million in profits this year. This comes as a new hacking group has been connected with the incident, after it was revealed the DragonForce group sent M&S CEO Stuart Machin an email days after it faced a major cyberattack gloating about the hack and demanding ransom payment. The email, seen and reported by the BBC, said: 'We have marched the ways from China all the way to the UK and have mercilessly raped your company and encrypted all the servers.' DragonForce aren't the only group that have been connected with the attack on the retailer, as the Scattered Spider network had previously been named as the enactors of the social engineering attack. According to Sergey Shyekevich, a researcher from cybersecurity company Checkpoint, more hacker groups are forming alliances on the dark web. 'Co-operation between two powerful groups is very interesting,' he says. 'It's one outcome we see on the dark web more and more, alliances between big groups.' Here's all we know about the two hacker groups What is DragonForce? DragonForce is a hacker organisation that offers Ransomware to cyber-criminal affiliates for a 20 per cent cut of any ransoms collected. This means that for a fee, they lease out their malware through dark web marketplaces to cyber-criminals. While the organisation originally started working in 2023, they've had a massive re-marketing of their business model in the past couple of months. 'In the last two months, they started to become very active in one of the biggest dark web forums,' says Sergey, who says they have marketed themselves as a 'Ransomware Cartel', cornering that market on the dark web in the past month. 'They started being more aggressive I think a few weeks before all the attacks in the UK,' he adds. Researchers have claimed they operate out of Malaysia, with some disputing this and saying they are located in Russia. As well as the M&S hack, DragonForce has been linked to the Co-op cyberattack. What is Scattered Spider? Scattered Spider is a community of hackers that targets huge organisations across different sectors using social engineering tactics. 'They're very good at social engineering of different types,' Sergey says, adding that in the past they have used SIM swapping and impersonated IT staff to trick people into letting them use their systems. Believed to be a community of young adults across the US and UK, the group gained notoriety for their involvement in hacking and extorting two of the largest casino and gambling companies in the United States. 'They understand human nature and how big corporations work,' says Sergey. 'They're very successful.' In 2023 they were linked to the hacking and extortion of Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International, which led the former to pay a ransom of approximately £11 million ($15 million). They were able to access a significant number of driver's licence numbers and possibly even Social Security numbers of the casino customers through the ransomware demand. A 17-year-old hacker from the United Kingdom was arrested in connection with the hack and attempted ransom in July 2024. How did the cyberattack happen? M&S first disclosed they had experienced a cyberattack on 22 April, which had disrupted their online operations and even halted contactless payments. Hundreds of agency workers at the company were told not to come into work as the retailer dealt with the fallout of the cyberattack. Customer personal data – which could have included names, email addresses, postal addresses and dates of birth – was also taken by hackers in the attack. M&S revealed last month that the attack was caused by 'human error', as Mr Machin said in an annual figures report in May that the hackers gained access to the company's IT systems through a third party. He said at the time: 'We didn't leave the door open, this wasn't anything to do with under-investment. Everyone is vulnerable. For us, we were unlucky on this particular day through some human error.' Responding to attacks on the retail sector, the NCSC put out advice to the industry and responded to speculation that the Scattered Spider group had used social engineering to target IT help desks and perform password and MFA (multi-factor authentication) resets. 'Criminal activity online – including, but not limited to, ransomware and data extortion – is rampant,' their blog post wrote. 'Attacks like this are becoming more and more common. And all organisations, of all sizes, need to be prepared.' Deputy Director Paul Foster, head of the NCA's National Cyber Crime Unit, said: 'Specialist NCA cybercrime officers are working closely with law enforcement partners to investigate the recent cyber incidents affecting the retail sector. Identifying the criminals responsible and bringing them to justice is a top priority. 'We are considering the incidents individually, but have a range of hypotheses and are mindful they may be linked. 'The impact of these incidents has been significant and businesses will understandably be concerned. I'd encourage all organisations to follow advice on the NCSC's website to ensure they have effective cyber security measures in place to help prevent attacks. 'I'd also urge those that do unfortunately fall victim to an attack to engage with law enforcement as part of the reporting process. The NCA and policing will investigate covertly and discreetly, as well as support the recovery of systems and data.' How much money has M&S lost? The fallout from the cyberattack saw the company lose £650 million of value in a matter of days. M&S said it expected to take an estimated £300 million hit to profits this year, as they predicted disruption to its online business to last into July. What has M&S said in response? As M&S reopened its online operations, they put out a statement which said: 'You can now place online orders with standard delivery to England, Scotland and Wales. Delivery to Northern Ireland will resume in the coming weeks. 'We will resume click and collect, next-day delivery, nominated-day delivery and international ordering in the coming weeks.'
Western Telegraph
28 minutes ago
- Western Telegraph
Starmer and Reynolds meet US commerce secretary in push to implement trade deal
The Prime Minister dropped in on a meeting between Howard Lutnick and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds in Downing Street on Tuesday. Mr Lutnick was in London for talks with China on resolving the trade war between Washington and Beijing, and Mr Reynolds took the opportunity to meet him in person to push for the UK-US trade deal announced last month to be implemented as soon as possible. The meeting follows talks between the Business Secretary and US trade representative Jamieson Greer in Paris last week. Under the terms of the agreement announced by Sir Keir and Donald Trump, the US will implement import quotas that will effectively eliminate tariffs on British steel and cut the levy on vehicles to 10%. But the deal has yet to be implemented and tariffs on both steel and cars remain at 25%, although the UK has been spared the increase on steel duties to 50% that Mr Trump imposed on the rest of the world last week. In a post on social media, Mr Reynolds said he had discussed 'progress on our trade deal – including UK autos and steel' with Mr Lutnick. UK officials remain hopeful that the deal will be implemented soon, but Tuesday's meeting does not appear to have moved the issue beyond both sides agreeing the need to move quickly. Speaking in the Commons last week, Sir Keir said he was 'very confident' that tariffs would come down in line with the deal 'within a very short time'. Implementing the deal will require the UK to pass legislation, likely to involve regulations rather than a full Act of Parliament, while the US will also need to create a legal mechanism to bring steel and vehicle quotas into effect.
North Wales Chronicle
43 minutes ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Welsh railways to get £445m investment in spending review
Rachel Reeves is expected to announce the additional funding as part of her spending review, aiming to address what the Treasury sees as years of underinvestment in Welsh infrastructure. Understood to be a combination of direct funding and additional money for the Welsh government, the investment is expected to be spent on projects such as fixing level crossings, building new stations and upgrading railway lines. A Treasury source said: 'With this Government, Wales will thrive, and the Chancellor has prioritised bringing forward a package that has the potential to be truly transformative.' On Tuesday, Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan told members of the Senedd that her government was 'expecting something positive from the spending review'. She said: 'I've been clear and I've been consistent when it comes to rail funding that we have not been getting our fair share of funding, in a position that the Tories left us with for over a decade. 'The difference between the Tories and the UK Labour Government is that they've recognised that injustice.' Baroness Morgan's comments came in response to criticism from Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth of a decision to classify the £6.6 billion Oxford-to-Cambridge line as an England and Wales project. The designation means Wales will not receive the additional rail funding it would get if branded an England-only project. Mr ap Iorwerth said Wales had been 'getting our share until Labour actively moved the goalposts'. The expected announcement of additional funding for Welsh railways is one of several transport-related investments set to be confirmed on Wednesday. Ms Reeves has already announced plans to spend a total of £15.6 billion on public transport projects in England's city regions, and is understood to be preparing to extend the £3 cap on bus fares in England until March 2027.
