A Bargain Hunt auctioneer accused of putting his pregnant wife in a headlock has been found not guilty of subjecting her to years of violence and coercive and controlling behaviour.
Charles Hanson’s wife Rebecca told Derby Crown Court she was left “paralysed with fear” when he “went for” her while she was five or six months pregnant with a child that she later lost.
She claimed the alleged incident in 2012 was the start of escalating violence in her marriage to the 46-year-old television personality, known for appearances on Bargain Hunt and Flog It.
She told the jury he also threatened to burn her with embers from a fire, repeatedly “grabbed” her, locked her in a hotel room, and pushed her in series of alleged incidents over the following decade.
Mr Hanson denied any wrongdoing, telling the court the headlock was simply a hug and he was “almost a slave” to his wife who left him “a beaten and broken man” by controlling him.
A jury of seven women and five men unanimously cleared him of controlling or coercive behaviour between 2015 and 2023, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and assault by beating after four-and-a-half hours deliberating.
Mr Hanson smiled at his parents and gave a thumbs-up gesture from the dock as the not guilty verdicts were returned on Friday after a three-week trial.
The celebrity auctioneer's parents, who were sitting in the front row of the public gallery, wept and hugged their son after he was discharged from the dock.
Mr Hanson spoke of his relief outside the courtroom, telling reporters: "I'm delighted that after a year and a half the truth has finally come out.
"I can finally live my life again. I feel this burden has finally been lifted.
"It has been a tormentuous time and all I want now is to readjust to what has been such an ordeal. I am so relieved that this is all over."
The prosecution alleged WhatsApp messages sent by the auctioneer to his wife, 41, amounted to a “set of confessions” to the charges.
In his closing speech, prosecutor Stephen Kemp said the messages, including one in which Mr Hanson promised to never again “lay a finger” on his wife, provide a clear picture of the couple’s relationship.
However Sasha Wass KC, defending, claimed Ms Hanson “was not controlled in any sense of the word” and “felt resentful and hard done by” at her husband’s work commitments before their marriage “imploded” in 2023.
Ms Wass told the jury: “The entirety of the case rests on the testimony of Rebecca Hanson. There is nothing else. You have to be sure that she is reliable, accurate and truthful.
“The reality, I suggest, is that Rebecca Hanson is none of those things and she has used this court, a criminal court, as an extension of her divorce battle.”
