'Apprentice' winner reveals childhood abuse

Michelle Dewberry has told how her father beat her up throughout her childhood.

The Apprentice winner revealed her suffering at the hands of alcoholic dad David, who treated his family with disdain and violence.

She said he beat them up often over a period of years, but recalled one occasion that drove her to leave home.

"I ran down the road to a phone box in my bare feet, blood pouring down my face and my hair coming out in clumps," she said of the attack when she was 18. "I called the police and never went back.

"It was not the first time he had beaten me up but it was the worst by far," she explained in an interview with the News of the World. "That day he knocked sense into me — to leave for good and make something out of my life. Now I really have done that.

"I have no idea what he thinks of me winning The Apprentice. I have not spoken to him for years and don't even know where he lives.

"I have no happy memories of him at all. The only thing I can thank him for is—in a ridiculous way— giving me the determination I have. I am scared stiff of him to this day."