Woman whipped with dog lead fears abusive ex-partner’s early release

A mother of three whose former partner was jailed for strangulation and repeated assaults says she fears for her family’s safety after being told he is expected to be released in March 2027, having served less than a third of his 34-month sentence.

Hayleigh Allsopp, 29, says Mark Hunt whipped her across the neck with a dog lead, knocked out a tooth and attacked her while she was holding her son. He was convicted at Cardiff Crown Court on 7 August 2026 of one count of strangulation, three counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and three counts of assault by beating.

Alongside his prison sentence, Hunt received a lifetime restraining order preventing him from contacting Hayleigh or her children. But she says the order has not eased her fears about his release.

Hayleigh says she was informed on 30 September that Hunt was eligible for early release and was expected to leave prison the following March. She has spent about £2,500, approximately $3,325, on security measures, including motion sensors and a guard dog.

“He knows where I live. I live on a cul-de-sac; he could just stand at the end of my street and intimidate me,” she said.

“I will be at risk from March; my babies will be at risk.

“They are not protecting me; they are not protecting my children either.”

The government has defended its early-release scheme, arguing that preventing prisons from running out of cells is essential to public safety. It says additional prison places and tighter controls on offenders will protect the public.

For Hayleigh, a stay-at-home mother from Barry, Wales, the prospect of Hunt’s release means renewed anxiety after years of abuse.

She first met him in person in July 2021, after they had exchanged messages on Facebook for two years. She says he initially stayed with her for a fortnight and regularly travelled to Barry to see her and her son from a previous relationship.

“He swept me off my feet; he was charming and told me everything I wanted to hear,” she said.

Hayleigh says the first attack took place weeks after they resumed their relationship in early 2024. She had confronted Hunt about adding other women on Facebook, and their argument continued after she went to bed at about midnight.

At around 4am, she says, he became violent after she told him to go and see another woman. She says he held her over the bed and pressed a hairbrush into her neck, then followed her downstairs as she tried to get away.

According to her account, Hunt pushed her to the floor, shoved a tea towel down her throat, pressed his knee against her neck and covered her mouth and nose, stopping her from breathing.

She took her children to her mother’s home afterwards. Hunt repeatedly called that morning, she says, leaving a voicemail in which he said: “I don’t want to leave you, I want to be with you.”

When she returned home, she found flowers and a hot chocolate on the doorstep. She says he also gave her Chanel perfume, apologised and begged her not to leave.

“I felt stuck with him,” Hayleigh said. “I didn’t like him, but I stayed with him.”

In 2025, she moved to Cardiff, where Hunt was living. That April, she says, she left the house during an argument to allow the situation to calm down. When she returned, he demanded food.

After she sarcastically offered to make him a sandwich, she says he swung at her three times and slammed her face against the kitchen wall tiles while she was holding her son.

Hayleigh describes another attack after she had been looking online for kittens. She also says Hunt whipped her across the neck with a dog lead following a housing appointment.

In October 2025, she says, Hunt showed her a fake Facebook account that had added him, suggesting it belonged to a woman with whom he had previously cheated on her. Hayleigh believes he was deliberately trying to make her jealous.

The argument continued the following morning. She says Hunt pulled her to the floor by her hair and punched her, then dragged her down again as she tried to walk away.

“He grabbed my hair, dragged me to the floor and started punching me,” she said.

“As I walked away, he pulled me again to the floor, put me between his kneecaps, put his kneecaps on my temples – and then I felt pressure on my head.

“Then I was upside down on the floor as he was punching me in the mouth, and I lost my tooth. I told him to hurry up and get it over and done with.

“I stood, and I was bleeding from my nose, ears and mouth.”

The final attack took place in April 2026. Hayleigh says Hunt’s dogs had damaged a window at her rented home, leaving her to pay £600, around $800, for a replacement. When she raised the cost, she says, he dismissed it, telling her: “it’s minor, shut up about it”.

After she told him to remove the dogs from the house, she says he punched her six times in the mouth, slapped her, knocked her head against a glass door and punched her into a chest of drawers, breaking it.

She says Hunt then went upstairs and locked the front door. She called the police, and he was arrested later that day.

Despite his subsequent conviction, Hayleigh says she does not feel justice has been served. She says she has PTSD, struggles to sleep and feels compelled to defend her children whenever someone arrives at the house.

“I am constantly in fight-or-flight mode where if someone turns up at the house I feel like I need to defend my kids,” she said.

“I can’t sleep, and if I do, I am drenched in sweat.”

She described a nightmare in which Hunt had returned from prison and they were together again, leaving her unable to escape.

“I am grateful that I have some breathing space where he is behind bars, but I constantly fear the day he is released,” she said.

Defending the government’s approach, Alex Norris, the UK’s Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, said: “We are introducing the toughest ever range of tools to control prison leavers and better protect the public.

“We understand the anxiety victims face ahead of offenders release dates, but the greatest danger to victims would be prisons running out of cells for dangerous criminals which was the crisis this government inherited.

“Our plan will make sure this never happens again by building 14,000 prison places while subjecting offenders to the toughest ever controls – leaving them nowhere to hide and under no doubt that we are watching them.”