More than 30 men have been jailed for attacks on women already this year, including two for murder. Every month, WalesOnline looks back at the criminals who have been sent to prison for the most serious crimes.
And since January of this year, the number of men who have attacked partners, former partners or strangers is 31 - and there could be more as those are the ones that have been reported on.
The list includes two men who have murdered their estranged partners. Russell Marsh left four young children without their mother when he murdered his estranged wife. He carried out a "savage and merciless attack" on Jade Ward simply because she wanted to move on with her life. After murdering her, he left her body under a pile of clothes for police to find.
Read more: The image Ruth Dodsworth's abusive ex sent to their children in bid to manipulate them
Pensioner David Maggs is also on the list. He was jailed for brutally murdering his wife in her own bed. He stabbed her 15 times at their home in Sebastopol, Pontypool - a month before divorce proceedings were finalised. She suffered horrific injuries to her neck, chest, stomach and arms.
Others on the list include a man who strangled his wife with the cord from his dressing gown, another who stabbed his partner in the backside in a row over which pizza takeaway, and another who punched his girlfriend in the face just weeks after she had given birth.
Welsh Women's Aid says that violence against woman and girls in Wales is at "epidemic rates", and have called on the UK and Welsh Governments to do more.
Chief executive Sara Kirkpatrick says: “Violence against women and girls is at epidemic rates across Wales and the wider UK. An increasing number of women cannot access refuge support due to a lack of capacity and resources.
"We are also witnessing rising rates of reports of sexual violence, survivors facing the longest court delays on record and just 1% of rape cases ending with a conviction. This experience is exacerbated for Black, minoritised and migrant women.
"Women and girls are being failed by the system that is supposed to protect and support them."
She also called on the UK and Welsh governments to do more.
Adding: "They need to recognise this as part of a culture of misogyny than normalises violence against women. This means that commitments made in the Violence Against Women and Girls strategy, the Domestic Abuse Bill, and other legislation must take us from intention to action to truly achieve change that lasts and eliminate violence against women and girls.
"It has never been more essential to fully and sustainably fund front-line support services and to remove the many existing barriers for women to access support and justice, so that all women in Wales can live fear free from male violence.”
The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics show that the number of police recorded domestic abuse-related crimes in England and Wales rose 6% in the year ending March 2021 to 845,734. This follows increases seen in previous years and may reflect improved recording by the police alongside increased reporting by victims. Demand on domestic abuse helplines increased by 22%.
Last week, a show by ITV presenter Ruth Dodsworth, whose ex-husband is in jail after being found guilty of coercive control, found that reports of the crime increased from 7,588 in 2018 to more than 14,223 in 2020. Over the same period there were only 987 convictions. And these figures only reflect the reports made to police. You can read more here.
Expert Professor Jane Monckton Smith explained coercive control in the documentary, that was called Controlled By My Partner? The Hidden Abuse, saying: "It is a pattern of behaviour used by an abuser with the ultimate aim of trapping their partner in a relationship with them. They can use different tactics. Using violence is an effective method to maintain and establish control."
Her research shows a clear link between coercive control and domestic homicide.
Of the control, she said: "It is the most dangerous form of domestic abuse there is and it is the most likely to lead to serious harm and even homicide. We have to be able to recognise it and recognise when it is escalating and when it gets more serious."
The Assistant Chief Constables of Wales' biggest police force says that tackling violence and abuse again women and girls is a long-standing priority for her officers.
Jenny Gilmer says: "We recognise that concern regarding personal safety and violence is as great as it has ever been.
"As a force we have an excellent history of partnership working. We target resources towards clear routes to safety for victims, supporting and empowering survivors and investing in evidence-based interventions that tackle root causes, addressing the harmful attitudes and behaviours that result in violence and abuse.
"We also have wider strategies to deal with other forms of abuse, including domestic abuse affecting men, and our approach is to treat each incident of violence on its own merits, while having a clear focus on the prevalence and threat, risk and harm.
"We recognise that anyone can be a victim and all victims who report incidents to us will be responded to. Each victim will be treated in a sensitive and respectful manner. We will continue to develop responses to address the needs of victims, and we will have a strong focus on interventions for women who we know are more likely to be victims, in terms of frequency and severity of violence and abuse.
The men who have been jailed in the first four months of 2022 for attacks on women:
Russell Marsh
The remorseless husband who murdered his wife will spend at least the next 25 years behind bars.
The 29-year-old was estranged from his wife when he snuck into Jade Ward's home in north Wales before stabbing and strangling her. A court heard 27-year-old Ms Ward had been "moving on with her life" after splitting from Marsh.
After carrying out his horrific attack, Marsh then hid the mum-of-four's body under a pile of clothes for the police to find at her home in Shotton, north Wales. Judge Rhys Rowlands slammed Marsh for carrying out a "savage and merciless attack" simply because his estranged wife wanted to move on. Her brave family applauded as the judge jailed Marsh for life with a minimum of 25 years. He was convicted of murder by a jury last week. You can read more on that story here.
David Maggs
The pensioner who brutally murdered his wife in her own bed is now behind bars for at least two decades. Maggs stabbed his 74-year-old wife Linda Maggs 15 times at their home in Sebastopol, Pontypool, on February 6 last year - a month before divorce proceedings were finalised. She suffered horrific injuries to her neck, chest, stomach and arms in the brutal attack. The most significant blow was an injury to her chest described as a 15.5cm stab wound.
Maggs had been with his wife for 28 years before their relationship broke down in 2020 and the pair were sleeping in separate bedrooms. Jurors were told that after the attack, Maggs, 71, rang 999 saying: “I’ve just killed the wife”. And when police arrived at the couple’s semi-detached home in Lansdowne, Sebastopol, the defendant was said to have told an officer: “I’ve just had enough, she tried to steal two houses from me, two houses." Read how son stares Maggs down.
Andrew Simson
He strangled his wife with the cord from his dressing gown after he had drunk two bottles of wine.
The 52-year-old was at home with his wife in a flat they shared in Wyllie, near Blackwood, on the afternoon of November 13, 2021. This was only five days after a community order had expired which prohibited him from contacting his wife – something which was put in place due to a previous assault.
Kayne O'Dare
He repeatedly assaulted the mother of his child and controlled her life over the course of almost a year. The 26-year-old started a relationship with Ravel Roxanne Grimbly in 2018.
However, between September 22, 2020, and August 22, 2021, when the couple lived at a property in the St Mellons area of Cardiff, O’Dare’s behaviour changed and he became violent and controlling towards his partner. He repeatedly assaulted his victim and left her with black eyes and at one point a broken arm.
Stephen Hill
He repeatedly punched his partner in the face and knocked her to the ground just weeks after she had given birth to their baby.
Hill downed almost a bottle of whisky before launching the brutal assault, and his victim subsequently needed surgery to fit a metal plate into her face to repair the damage to her eye socket.
Adrian Rees
He repeatedly punched and bit his girlfriend after going home drunk following a Christmas party with workmates.
An intoxicated Rees began challenging the woman to a fight before raining blows down on her and then sinking his teeth into her lip.
Carwyn Roberts
The cruel and manipulative man pretended to be a lawyer and a doctor in a bid to control his partner’s life – even persuading the vulnerable woman she was pregnant.
Roberts created a series of fake people and email accounts in order to spin a web of lies which ranged from the couple buying a house together to convincing her she had been drugged and sexually abused in her own home. He also persuaded her to give up her job at a school after saying he had secured a new position for her with the local council.
David Nicholls
His former partner needed stitches after he threw a can at her face.
Nicholls, 29, breached a restraining order for the fourth time when he attacked his ex on December 23 last year as she walked home from a shop in Cardiff.
The woman had heard someone shouting 50 metres behind her. She turned to see Nicholls "berating" her and "mumbling incoherently", prosecutor Peter Donnison told Cardiff Crown Court.
Kyle Protheroe
The binman was jailed after attacking his ex-partner, stalking her and brutally beating up her friend in a series of jealous rages.
Protheroe, of Port Road in Rhoose, assaulted his former girlfriend Rachel Jones with a phone before embarking on a terrifying campaign of stalking which left her and her daughter traumatised. When he saw Ms Jones with a male friend, he rained down punches and kicks on the man's head and body, leaving him needing hospital treatment.
Liam Williams
He attempted to headbutt a police officer after illegally attending his ex-partner's home and falling into a drunken stupor on her sofa.
Williams, 23, was made subject to a restraining order preventing him from contacting his ex-partner Danielle Lynley after he assaulted her and strangled her.
Damien Davies
The man with a long history of beating and abusing partners subjected his girlfriend to a "horrendous ordeal" in her own home.
Davies throttled and beat the woman before throwing her to the floor and forcing her face into the doormat with his foot.
He has eight previous convictions for offences relating to partners or former partners including numerous assaults, false imprisonment, and disclosing private sexual photographs. A judge said he had no doubt Davies was a dangerous offender, and if he had the power to do so he would make him subject of an extended sentence.
Gregory Gair
The obsessive man threatened to a kill a woman he went out on one date with and told her he was going to "rip her heart out".
Gair, 36, of Newport, harassed his victim by sending incessant messages over the course of a year and attempted to disguise his voice with a Northern Irish accent while threatening to rip her heart out.
The fantasist even posted on his Facebook account that he and the woman, who only met for one date, were in a relationship and when she blocked him and refused to answer his calls he threatened to kill himself, telling her "my life is in your hands".
Tyler Richards
The prisoner threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend and "put a bullet" in the head of her "new man".
Richards, who is serving an eight-year jail term for wounding, made four vile calls from HM Prison Parc in Bridgend. He told the mother of his children he would "beat the life" out of her.
Terrence John
The pensioner tried to murder his former partner as she lay in bed by stabbing her in the face and chest with a kitchen knife.
Despite her injuries, John's victim managed to fight him off and fled to a neighbouring flat wearing nothing but a towel. When police and paramedics arrived they found 70-year-old John face down in a pool of blood in the property having tried to take his own life.
Nathaniel Williams
He stabbed his partner in the backside in a row over which pizza takeaway to order food from. Williams got into an argument with his partner of four years at their home in Adamsdown in Cardiff. Cardiff Crown Court heard how, after entertaining friends, Williams and his partner wanted to get some food before and an argument erupted over which pizza takeaway to order. She wanted Pizza Choice, and Williams wanted Pizza Hut.
Julian Davies
The builder came "flying" towards his partner and savagely attacked her in view of their children. Davies headbutted, kicked, punched and verbally abused the mother of his three children during a booze-fuelled rage, Cardiff Crown Court heard on Friday. The 46-year-old, of Upland Road in Pontllanfraith, denied causing actual bodily harm but he was found guilty by magistrates at an earlier hearing.
Andrew Quick
He plunged a knife into his partner's breast as he repeatedly stabbed her in a drunken, jealous rage. Quick lashed out after accusing his long-term partner of sneaking another man into her house.
After attacking the woman the defendant fled from the property and rang for paramedics and police saying he had stabbed the woman "all over" before he returned to the house to apologise. The 48-year-old later told officers that what had happened was not the victim's fault but "it was her fault that he was so angry".
Lincoln Parkes
He throttled his partner with a dog lead, repeatedly punched her, and kicked her in the face during a prolonged assault in their home. As Parkes choked the woman with the lead he told her he wanted to see her soil herself - something a judge described as "gratuitous degradation" of his victim.
The 60-year-old defendant has a previous conviction for inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent on the same partner, as well as convictions for assaulting a taxi driver and beating a colleague with a spanner.
Luke Spicer
He punched his partner to the ground and kicked her in the face as she sat defenceless on the pavement during a trip to Tenby which had been designed to rekindle their relationship. After launching what a judge described as a "grotesquely brutal attack" Spicer casually walked away from his girlfriend and left her screaming on the floor.
The woman sought help from staff in a nearby hotel who called the police.
Andrew Perkins
He grabbed his ex-partner by the throat and choked her before slamming her face against a pebble-dashed wall after she refused to give him a lift in her car.
Perkins was laying in wait for his victim at her home as she returned from a night out in Neath having already broken into the property and soaked her bed and sofa with water in a drunken act of spite.
Swansea Crown Court heard Perkins has a history of assaulting partners, including throttling one and biting the ears of another. A judge described the defendant as a "cowardly bully" of women.
Men who attacked women they didn't know
David Turner
The rapist's victim thought she was going to die when he broke into her home and lay in wait before fracturing her cheekbone and strangling her.
Turner, 41, from Cardiff, carried out a "forceful and premeditated" assault on his victim, who he also raped while under the influence of cocaine and alcohol, causing her pain and humiliation.
The victim sustained injuries to her face after Turner hit her and strangled her after entering her home through a window and waiting until she returned to her house.
Bobby Taylor
He "forcefully" shoved a woman he had just met down concrete steps leaving her with serious facial injuries.
Taylor and his victim had only met a short time before the assault, and were sat together talking on the seafront steps outside Swansea Civic Centre
After pushing the woman down the steps - a fall which left her with a broken jaw and knocked three of her teeth out - the defendant fled the scene but was identified after witnesses were able to describe his distinctive tattoos.
Andrew Price
The pervert sexually assaulted an unconscious woman at a hostel after he locked the door and carried out a sickening attack. The victim had no recollection of the assault but it was caught on the hostel's CCTV.
Price, 44, carried out the attack on his victim, who has lifelong anonymity, in the communal living room of a hostel in Cardiff. Two witnesses were present just before the assault and described the victim as "intoxicated" and "tired".
Rhys Stone
He locked a teenage girl in a car before carrying out a terrifying sexual attack just hours after meeting her online.
The 21-year-old first began chatting with his victim via a live-streaming app and came across to the girl and her friends as "pleasant" and offered to take them to out in his car.
However, the girl had no idea that Stone was a convicted sex offender - and hours later would be subjected to a terrifying ordeal.
Ryan Owen
The teenager punched a woman in the face at a party and broke her jaw in an unprovoked attack that left her needing an operation.
Owen's victim had given him a lift to the house party in her car but he later lashed out at her in an unprovoked assault. The woman needed surgery to fit a metal plate and screws to her jaw to repair the damage and missed her son's birthday because she was in hospital.
Thomas Godfrey
Godfrey rained punches on one woman and sexually assaulted another during an attack at a hotel.
He struck his first victim in the face 15 to 20 times before entering the second woman's hotel room, getting in her bed, stroking the top of her thigh and performing a sex act.
Prosecutor Lowri Wynn Morgan said the sexual assault victim had eaten a Chinese takeaway before going to bed in her hotel room where there was some leftover food. The door was closed but unlocked.
Jordan Merli-Hampton
The former theology student beat up and sexually assaulted a woman after boozing and taking drugs.
As the woman struggled to free herself, the attacker told her: "Be quiet or I'll end your life." Sending Jordan Merli-Hampton to prison, a judge told him he had let his children down.
Benjamin Metcalfe
Metcalfe was visiting Wales for work when he ran after a teenage girl and sexually assaulted her in a dark alleyway.
At dusk on December 2, 2019, he was in Milford Haven in his works van about to get petrol when he saw a 16-year-old girl pass by.
When she passed the forecourt of the garage, he ran after her for several hundred yards, following her into a dark alleyway.
Ashmeet Soni
He sexually assaulted and violated three women in a week in a series of street attacks.
Two of Soni's victims were attacked in broad daylight on busy roads – one while she was walking with her young children. The third victim was dragged into an alleyway and violently assaulted while she was on a night out.
Speaking after the sentencing police said such stranger attacks were extremely unusual but in the defendant "we had an extremely dangerous individual".
Cory Slade
The thug spat at police officers as they arrested him for posting intimate photos of a naked woman on social media.
Slade, 29, made his victim feel "digusted and degraded" by the photos which were posted on the defendant's Snapchat and What'sApp accounts.
Roland Long
The rapist chased his terrified and lost victim then shoved her to the ground and told her: "No-one says no to me" before subjecting her to a violent 10-minute sex attack. Roland Long, who was finally punished for the offence more than 40 years on due to advances in DNA technology, was revealed to be a serial sex abuser and paedophile when he was sentenced.
The pensioner was handed a 12-year extended sentence for the brutal attack in Cardiff which left his victim fearing for her life and thinking about the Yorkshire Ripper killings with the man responsible then still at large. Long, 67 and from Nailsea, North Somerset, carried out the August 1980 attack on a woman in her late 20s as she was walking home after a day out with her family. Read here how justice caught up with Long after 40 years.
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