31-year-old Catherine Hartley was starved by her twisted husband for 12 years because he wanted her to be able to wear clothes designed for a child.

Catherine from Irvine was a size 12 when she tied the knot with Matthew Hartley. But her husband wanted a partner who could wear size 0 clothes.

They first met when she was only 15 and he was 25. Catherine said he pursued her by buying her alcohol and cigarettes.

It was in 2006 when they got married but this started a 12-year nightmare for her as Matthew began to control her.

She said her husband didn’t want a ‘fat wife’ so he stopped her from eating healthily to the point that she weighed only five stone.

Speaking to the Daily Record, Catherine said: “He said I was fat so he put me on a diet. He wanted a size 0 wife.

“If I ate before I went to bed, he forced me to sleep on the sofa as he didn’t like the smell of food on me.

“I ended up so thin that when I lay down on the mattress my bones hurt. In the end, I was wearing a girl’s age-seven clothes.”

Catherine said Matthew was abusive during their marriage, lifting her from her feet and grabbing her by the neck. At one point, he threw her across the room.

There was also an incident when he pulled off her dressing gown because he saw her smoking before pushing her onto a balcony.

After that, he installed surveillance cameras so he could see what Catherine was doing all the time.

The couple finally separated in 2017 and divorced in 2019. The 42-year-old pleaded guilty to three counts of assault and a sexual assault concerning another woman.

However, Matthew didn’t receive a custodial sentence and was only given a community payback order with 12 months’ supervision.

Catherine said the punishment was too lenient for the years she suffered. She believed Matthew should have received a prison term for what he did.

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