Plan B Forum

A mother who was tortured by her former fiance in front of their children is being forced to write to him in prison – or face being jailed herself.



Natalie Allman, 29, was battered and slashed across the throat by Jason Hughes during a seven-hour ordeal because he wanted to make her ‘ugly’ after she ended their relationship. But she has now been ordered to provide the former Territorial Army soldier with regular updates about their twin sons after he launched a legal battle from his cell.


Under parental rights laws, Miss Allman must send letters and photos of the five-year-olds to her attacker three times a year and will be held in contempt of court if she refuses. Miss Allman, who still bears the scars of her ordeal, said yesterday that she is being wrongly made to feel like a criminal. ‘We are the victims, not him,’ she said. ‘I thought he was going to kill me that night for no reason and my boys saw that. They were terrified,’ she added.

‘I’m so angry that the law still defends his parental rights and that he is still being allowed to control us from behind bars.’ Hughes, 42, was jailed for nine years in 2012 following the brutal attack at the couple’s home in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, the year before. He had flown into a jealous rage when Miss Allman dumped him just two months before they planned to marry, telling Hughes that she was seeing somebody else. The former reservist, who had an alcohol addiction, attempted to smother her with a pillow before repeatedly bludgeoning her with a dumb bell and slashing her throat.

Hughes, who was trained to use bayonets and knives in the Army, only let Miss Allman call an ambulance after seven hours. Officers arrived to find their terrified sons, then two, in bed with their mother covered in blood. Miss Allman suffered horrific wounds and needed cosmetic surgery on her throat, but later rebuilt her life and had another child with a new partner. But in January last year Hughes applied for a residence and contact order under the Children Act of 1989, demanding six letters a year as well as phone calls.

Despite spending £3,000 fighting the order, a judge ordered Miss Allman to send three letters a year on the children’s school progress, health and emotional development or face a fine or jail. Hughes was given permission to send them one letter a year as well as cards at birthdays and Christmas. Miss Allman said she is sickened by letters she has already received from Hughes, which she says describe how he is allowed to play on an Xbox games console and work as a bee-keeper. She has been told to keep them in case the boys want to read them one day. She said: ‘I couldn’t believe it. ‘I could end up being split up from my children and sent to prison when he was the one who attacked me. I’m the one being treated like a criminal.’

work as a bee-keeper.

MajGenl.Meade wrote:... and all of them highly suspect individuals! (Have to smile at Sherlock being in there).

should comply with the order while she makes a case arrangements to terminate his life parental rights.