Dorset lass Emma Paul, 43, is homeless - but lucky to be alive - after her 3-year relationship with Phillip Evans, 56, turned violent
EIGHT years ago, Phillip Evans watched Emma Paul on cult Channel 4 show Supersize vs Superskinny - and made it his mission to "track her down".
The 43-year-old, who spoke about her battle with anorexia on the show, knew nothing of Evans' sinister intentions when he started making daily visits to the charity shop she worked in.
But before long Emma, from West Moors, Dorset, was trapped in a controlling relationship - having been forced to quit her job and become increasingly isolated from her friends.
It culminated in maniac Evans, 56, torching her £400,000 house because, Emma believes, he wanted to kill her in the blaze.
Here, speaking to Fabulous Digital, Emma tells her story...
I met Philip when I was working in a charity shop in 2014. He said he was a boat builder. He was friendly, happy and came across as a nice person.
I wasn’t instantly attracted to him, I just saw him as one of our many regular customers. He came in every day.
We started dating in August 2014. He came to the local pub where we were having work drinks and invited to take me out on his boat. I’ve always loved sailing.
We had a couple more trips out on the boat, and we’d stop for dinner on the way home. By September, the relationship had become romantic.
At the beginning of October, I moved into the three-bed detached house I had bought.
Phillip said he should stay that first night, and he never left. I thought he was just trying to be caring.
A few months later, he told me he’d seen me on Supersize vs Superskinny in 2011 and had this feeling he would meet me at some point.
From watching me on TV, he realised it was filmed in West Moors, and he tracked me down from there.
He didn't go into details, he just said he’d seen me on the programme and decided he wanted to get to know me.
I thought it was a bit weird and creepy, but he made out like it was meant to be, like it was romantic.
He said he’d seen me on Supersize vs Superskinny and decided he wanted to get to know me. I thought it was a bit weird and creepy, but he made out like it was meant to be, like it was romantic
Emma Paul, 43, Dorset
When I was 41, we decided to try IVF. I haven’t had a period since 2007, because of my past eating disorder.
I somehow became pregnant when I was 40, but I lost the baby at seven weeks. A good six to eight months later, we decided to try again on IVF.
At first, Phillip was nice and kind but that didn’t last very long. When he moved in, things gradually started to change.
By Christmas he’d told me to give up my job.
I was doing renovations on my house, but he took over control of that as well, saying what was to be done and what wasn’t.
He started stopping me from seeing my friends, controlling my time out, all those sort of things.
Phillip would go to his boatyard during the day, but he never actually built a boat in the time I knew him.
I don't really know what he spent his time doing there.
He was violent with me twice.
The first time was early on in the relationship, he told me I couldn’t go to see my friend but I did it anyway.
He was constantly calling my mobile while I was out, which I was ignoring, and when I got home I found him in a state. I think he’d been drinking.
I couldn’t actually get through the door at first because he’d taken a sledgehammer to the walls.
There was rubble all over the floor, so I had to push and move bricks away to actually get into the house.
He attacked me and pinned me onto the floor, but luckily I managed to push him off me, because he was so drunk.
The next time he was annoyed because I hadn't done something he told me to do, and he pinned me down on the kitchen floor.
I was totally scared of him. I felt very isolated.
I realised I definitely didn’t want a child with him, I didn’t want a child with his grotty DNA.
I went into hospital to ask them to stop the IVF in Easter 2017.
I was so worried about getting myself there and back without him finding out.
Things all came to a head on September 15. It was a Friday night and I could tell by his mood what was coming. He was drinking very rapidly.
I was scared and thought “I don’t want to be in the house on my own with him”.
I suggested we went to the pub down the road for dinner.
When we got there, I went to the bathroom and when I came back he’d already ordered a bottle of wine.
He started saying I was eyeing up a man on another table, like he often did, he’d accuse me of flirting with people.
Then he accused me of having an affair. I thought “how could I possibly have an affair when he controls every moment of my day?”
He was definitely trying to kill me. He made the treat on New Year's Eve, and just a few days later this happened
Emma Paul, 43, Dorset
He started getting lairy with me and then with the staff. He complained about his food then upped and left, leaving me still eating my dinner.
I had the house keys on me. I’d been making sure I was the one carrying them for a few months, because I was nervous.
I didn’t know if I’d get left somewhere if he stormed off in a rage.
When I got back, I found out he’d broken into the house. He started yelling and shouting, getting in my face and shoving me.
That’s when somehow I found a voice and told him to get out.
He took my car and I called a friend of mine who’s a police officer. She told me to call 999 and report him.
They soon tracked him down, because he was drink-driving at the time.
A policeman came to my house and asked me what the relationship was like - and I finally admitted what had been going on.
They told me they knew of him, they knew him well, he had a history of domestic violence.
They had wanted to speak to me in the past but they’re not allowed to approach you.
I felt shocked to realise there’s a part of him I didn’t know.
But I also felt relieved to know I wasn’t imagining this, I wasn’t making it up, his behaviour wasn’t right or normal.
Phillip had a restraining order put on him, but he continued contacting me.
I got the first message the next morning when he was released. He was on the police station doorstep texting me.
He would turn up at my house, contact my mother, phone her house, park up outside my voluntary job.
He followed me in the car. He would sit there outside the house.
On New Year’s Eve he tried to break in by the side gate, pulled up all the bushes in the front garden and turned off my water supply.
He stopped texting me because I was showing his messages to the police, but the abuse became verbal.
He started threatening me, he threatened to kill me on New Year's Eve.
After that, I had a police car parked outside my house for three days, protecting me.
But just a few days later, on Tuesday January 9 2018, Phillip struck again.
I was due home at midday but I had a physio appointment he didn't know about.
I popped round to see my mum for a cuppa then went to the physio, but found out I’d got the wrong day.
On my way home, a friend phoned to ask me where I was, and told me my house was on fire. She was terrified I was in the house at the time.
I was in absolute shock and disbelief. "What do you mean my house is on fire?" I said.
I was screaming and crying the whole drive home.
He was definitely trying to kill me. He made the treat on New Year's Eve, and just a few days later this happened.
The timing was spot on, I should have been home at the time.
By the time I got home, the road was already full of police cars and fire engines.
They stopped me at the end of my road. I was trying to get to my house and see the damage but they were holding me back.
I was screaming and crying, eventually let me through.
When I saw the damage I just felt empty.
The house had already gone, there was no roof, smoke coming out of the windows, there was nothing left. It was totally destroyed, I had lost everything.
I think a lot about all the stuff I’ve lost, my possessions I’ll never be able to replace.
I live in a secure house in another town at the moment.
I hate Phillip for what he’s taken from me, but I also feel shock and disbelief that I’m still alive. I’m incredibly lucky.
I'm not dating at the moment though, he's destroyed my trust in men.
In November, Evans pleaded guilty to a charge of arson being reckless as to whether life would be endangered and was sentenced to six years and four months in prison.
Maniac Evans had broke in using a crowbar and doused the interior with acetone before setting it ablaze.
Evans said he wanted to kill himself in the fire but ended up jumping from a first floor window after the heat got too intense
Judge Stephen Climie, at Bournemouth Crown Court, also imposed a three-year extended licence, ruling that Evans poses a danger to the public.
Yesterday we revealed this controlling boyfriend spat at his partner and banned her from having gas and air during labour as he wanted her to suffer – but she's finally free of him.
