Jones' wife breaks silence over abuse

Bruce Jones subjected his wife to horrific physical and verbal abuse during their 26-year marriage, the News Of The World reports.

Sandra Jones claimed that he would strangle her so hard that she pretended to faint to make him stop. She also claimed that he would drag her around by the hair in front of their children.

The former Coronation Street star is awaiting sentence after he threatened to kill them both in their car by grabbing the wheel in a drunken rage. Bruce, 57, pleaded guilty to drunken and dangerous driving last August and confessed that he has an alcohol addiction.

Recounting the ordeal, Sandra said that he was screaming: 'I'll f**king kill us both. I'll put us under a truck. You don't believe me? You just watch'."

Sandra, who met Bruce in 1984 and married two years later, said that she is now on anti-depressants to deal with the years of torment.

"Ian has sapped every little bit of confidence I had out of me," she said. "Some of the arguments we had were horrific. He'd completely lose it and drag me around the house by my clothes or my hair. Sometimes the kids saw and would run upstairs and lock themselves in their bedrooms.

"He never punched me but he used to strangle me and the only way I could make him stop was to pretend to faint. I told him I was going to leave a few times, I even packed my bags but he'd stop me, cry and apologise and I'd forgive him."

She added that she wished she had left sooner, but "it is not as easy as everyone thinks".