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[Music] surrounded by the rapids and torrents of niagara falls mark arthur proposes to
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his girlfriend of 10 years heather i didn't quite get it i didn't quite get what she saw
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in him kind of thought i don't know if he's quite good enough for our heather
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it's so sad she couldn't bloom and blossom with a man who celebrated her talent celebrated her for
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all her gifts in what would become a signature move mark uses emotional blackmail to ensure
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that heather will say yes at the top of the 170 foot high waterfall he stepped over the fence
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into quite a dangerous position almost it could be said gave the impression that
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if the answer wasn't the right one he might just jump he is a maths man into computers
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now seems like he's a bit of a strange character he's described as always being
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very very scruffy looking [Music] she is a born performer admired by fellow actors
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there were clear signs of controlling and jealous behavior that existed at that time
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but she was very loyal is this a volatile relationship destined for a dramatic final act
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[Music] when heather naylor left the rural isle of wight for kingston university in
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surrey she made an impression on fellow students she was very attractive she had a very
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kind of almost like an english rose sort of look but she was not i mean somebody with with those kind of
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looks you think would be kind of quite um quite proud of them or quite affected by them but heather was very unaffected
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by by her looks and that just simply added to her attraction heather nader was an absolutely lovely
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person she was one of these people that everybody spoke positively about energetic full of life
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always wanting to help people kind of life and soul of the party not not bombastic or loud but just just
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lovely i would remember heather as sunshine in human form [Music] it was at kingston in the 1980s that
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heather met fellow first year mark arthur he came from newcastle upon time whilst heather is quite outgoing and
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bubbly he is a mathematician so he's very accurate about things and he's not
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very extroverted but in relationships that can be a really nice balance because whilst he's quite methodical and
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analytical she's more outgoing and that means sociable and together that would
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have been a nice fit there may have been different but their relationship thrived and lasted beyond
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their student days after graduation they moved together to saboten in surrey not far from their old
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campus they were living together in brambly mansion's berrylands road it seemed from the outside that all was
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well and that they'd settled down into a domestic normal life it was whilst living in leafy serbian
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that heather gets a job in the reservations department at british airways but she also fulfills her lifelong
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passion for performance acting in her spare time david emmett was a tutor when heather
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joined his acting class at the questus theatre in eling london she was one of my best students and she
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had made tremendous progress and i was really very impressed with her work i'm trying to train actors to find the
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inner depths and the the true inner life of what they're doing and that's what i
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was able to bring through with heather and all what she was able to bring through
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fellow actors who starred in productions with heather remember her talents well she wasn't kind of
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swallowing around in a sort of you know look at me i'm playing this this amazing
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part that's not what she was like at all she was fun to be with it was it was a happy
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production she was sensitive she was fragile beautiful lovely lovely long long long slightly curly hair
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and sort of luminescence about her which which just was brilliant for the part and this vulnerability as well
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as the yet to be married heather nayla lit up the stage her fellow actors remember boyfriend mark as far from
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friendly at the after show parties i do have memories of other students in the group just
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socializing in the bar at the theater and sometimes saying you know why why can't you come to the party why
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why do you stay with him there were clear signs of controlling and jealous behavior
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that existed at that time but she was very loyal you sort of have this um sort of
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ideal of somebody who looks as as the way that heather looks and mark um was not that
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i'm not quite sure what what the what the kind of fit is there i kind of thought
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i don't know if he's quite good enough for our heather there was i don't know there was
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something about him you have these sort of instincts about people it was other students who were asking
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her why are you in this relationship shouldn't you do something about it and she would just
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smile and say no it's okay i've got it under control but did heather have it under control
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her friend anne remembers heather as being different when mark wasn't around
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as during the summer of 1989 when the actors went on tour to cornwall with chekhov's play the seagull
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i just remember lying on the beach with her just lying in the sun and relaxing and
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having a laugh she was much more sociable and much more part of the team which i hadn't felt quite before when
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she was here despite friends witnessing evidence of control and manipulation early on in
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their relationship heather wanted people to think that her home life in affluent
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serbian was comfortable i think when it comes down to this particular relationship there will have
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been lots of issues within the relationship but just heather didn't feel able to express that to the people
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around her a lot of people feel shame because it's not working it's so sad
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that that she couldn't bloom and blossom with a man who celebrated her talent celebrated her her
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for all her gifts jill barr is a domestic abuse expert who recognizes what heather's friends were
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in turn also recognising it's really important that when somebody you care about and your family or
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friends meet somebody new and you're getting a sense something's not right is to hold that hold on to it
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because we tend to find that most cases i've ever worked in a family member or a
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friend who said there was just something about him i didn't like something held heather back from leaving
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mark their life in surrey would carry on uninterrupted for over a decade until that is in 2003 when mark arranged a
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surprise trip to canada they take a holiday to canada and during a trip to niagara falls
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he proposes to her it was at niagara falls when mark was willing to do whatever it took to ensure
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that heather said yes [Music] he stepped over the fence into quite a dangerous position
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almost it could be said gave the impression that if the answer wasn't the right one he
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might just jump she told her friends that she was genuinely fearful that if she said no he
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would throw himself into the mist throw himself into the waters and give him where they are the likelihood that
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they'll ever see him again being very very slim the big question is what if she'd said
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no what is he trying to get across in that moment because whilst the power balance seems to be on her shoulders
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actually he's completely in control heather accepted her boyfriend's proposal but it is the act of the
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proposal itself that criminal barrister tony kent believes offers key insight into mark and heather's relationship at
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that time why would she have that reaction because it has to have happened before
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maybe not niagara falls maybe not the mist but he's got to have coerced her in
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that way before otherwise that wouldn't be her reaction who assumes that a no is
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an immediate suicide without reason to think that way alone with a new fiance how could
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heather naylor know that it was she who would be entering dangerous waters when agreeing to marry mark arthur
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when heather said yes i will marry you she may as well have signed a contract in blood saying that she would be with
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him forever it is that sense of of this very positive very beautiful very talented person coming up against
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somebody who is deeply damaged and who can't celebrate that and there are examples of him jumping
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out of a bus while it was still moving to hurt himself he uses it skills to locate a gps device
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that he could place onto heather without her knowing [Music] heather did not wait long before she
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married and began a family [Music] in 2004 they married it seemed from the outside that all was
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well and that they'd settled down into a domestic normal life by now heather had been promoted at
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british airways whilst mark was working as an i.t specialist now seems like he's a bit of a strange
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character he's described as always being very very scruffy looking whereas his wife was very well turned
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out seemed very smart had a very very good job with british airways as head of their uniform department
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he was a little bit anti-social um i don't think he had many friends um he was the type of person almost
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an opposite to heather the tactic mark employed to persuade heather to marry him was one that he
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employed many times in their marriage he would threaten to hurt himself if he ever lost control of heather
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that's how he deals with everything there are examples of him jumping out of
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a bus while it was still moving to hurt himself because that that's what he threatened he would do there's examples
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of him smashing his head off the side of the car and drawing blood because that's what he had told heather
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he would do if she did not do what he wanted when arthur started using the threats of
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self-harm the impact that would have had on heather very much would be of oh my gosh if i do leave which i want to
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because it's something telling me i need to leave what's he going to do and how i
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will feel bad about that and actually does he need help is he is he in need of is it something i'm doing that's making
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him think he wants to you know harm himself so effectively this this poor woman has got to the point in life
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where in order to stop her partner her husband from hurting himself she has to do whatever it is that he wants it's
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almost like dealing with a child unfortunately unlike with the child dealing with a grown-up
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man that way it's only going to get worse and it's only going to get more directed
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at you and it's only going to end in violence in 2009 the course of the couple's life
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fundamentally changed mark inherited a house 300 miles away in gosforth a suburb near newcastle upon
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tyne where he was born using his signature move he turned to emotional blackmail to convince heather
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to leave her friends from surrey behind [Music] what happens in these relationships is
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that there is a cutting off of all the rest of the family in order to isolate the woman and make
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her feel more helpless and more dependent and more emotionally dependent now the problem with that is that in
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leaving they also leave all of her friends and support network we know in abusive relationships there tends to be
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an escalation the more isolated an individual is from the support networks that they're used to so certainly this
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could have been a touch point for a change in their dynamics not only did heather have to leave her
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support network in surrey she left her job too heather takes redundancy from british
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airways and they move north and it's it's a house that needs some work doing to it
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now this was a big expensive really nice house in a really nice area however it was in dire need of some renovation
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and it seems to be this wasn't getting done heather was living hundreds of miles
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away from family and friends in a dilapidated house in the hometown of her controlling husband it was around then
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that heather's elderly father came to visit his daughter and to see his grandchildren in the northeast
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her father visited and he commented that she shouldn't be living like this this
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house needed sorting he writes a check for twenty thousand pound and gives it to heather to do the work
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that needs to be done on the house and lo and behold it's never done mark funnels the money into new i.t
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projects instead he was regularly preoccupied with the it business that he was trying to get off the ground he
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would spend hours hidden away in the study he's obviously doing something that he's
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become quite obsessed with he's over invested in it because he's certainly not invested in the house he's
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not keeping that up together he's a scruffy unkempt person he's not looking
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after himself heather's on her own quite a lot of the time we can see that there seems to be some
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shifting in mark's behavior further into the introversion stakes you know he
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squirrels himself away never really gets anywhere but he's very important preoccupied with the potential for his
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enigmatic project mark worked in one corner of their crumbling house whilst heather looked for work that she could
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fit around her family by 2013 she'd taken on some work as a teaching assistant and was generally
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looking after the children so once again we're introduced to the fact that for heather family whether
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it's working or otherwise is incredibly important to her i wonder whether there was any choice i
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almost feel like that was the perfect level of control where he got her to leave her career to attend to the family
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duties so that he could essentially bypass them that's concerning her life now revolved around a husband
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who had threatened to harm himself unless heather gave way to his needs but mark didn't stand in the way of
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heather's lifelong love of performance heather had discovered a jazz cafe not
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far from their home in newcastle one of the big changes for her is she starts singing in a jazz band
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[Music] we know she's trying to rediscover reinvent even herself and during this
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experience obviously bolstering confidence taking new opportunities heather sought to express herself
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creatively just as she had as a drama student in cerberton years earlier that she found that outlet later on was
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wonderful um i'm so glad she did um but it would have been it would have been a lifesaver for her when you're in
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a very difficult relationship the sense of worth the sense of you you are worthy of something
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you are gifted you people do appreciate you you're not this creature that's
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been projected onto you just singing a jazz band was a a really big step for her because she'd been
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pushed down into this introverted individual and now she was getting on a stage and she was singing
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and it was a huge step singing in the jazz band didn't just bring heather a sense of confidence and
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time away from mark it also meant new friends she meets paul who is a saxophonist in
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this band they become good friends she's able to have conversations with him talk
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about her problems and her concerns heather felt particularly comfortable around the saxophonist paul she told him
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about the troubles in her marriage we know that heather sits down with paul at some point and tells him that she
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feels like she's walking on eggshells at home so it's very very tension filled
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and this means that we're also potentially seeing a build in the behaviors towards her by her husband
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he was an ear he was someone to talk to he was some support for her there was nothing physical there was certainly
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something growing emotionally but there was nothing physical to those who knew them both mark seemed
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secure about heather's new social circle at the jazz cafe but really it had bothered him working
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alone at home for hours on end he did something about it believing that heather could never find out
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he used his i.t knowledge to put a digital trail on his wife he didn't confront it he didn't do any
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of the things you expect a normal well-adjusted human being to do no he used his ito skills to locate a gps
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device that he could place onto heather without her knowing so he would know where she was at all times
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what heather doesn't realize i don't think is the extent to which she's being
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monitored and tracked she probably thinks that arthur doesn't know where she's been going or
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what she's been doing or what she's been talking about the chances are that he
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knew absolutely everything remember at this point she was being tracked when she was only moving around
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doing things innocently at this point on the heather mark arthur matrimonial timeline the device would have revealed
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nothing that mark did not know heather would go to the shops do the school run sing in the jazz bar was this
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a breach of trust that heather decided was a step too far in her husband's controlling behavior
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the tracking device was almost a final straw heather found out about that she discovered that she was being tracked
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wherever she went stalking is a really big threat and a big issue in domestic abuse um in this case we could look what
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does stalking mean but we can say looking at what we've read in this case the putting a tracker on her phone now
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that can be covered up in so many different ways and initially in this case we know that it was around about
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the time when it looked like the marriage was going to end so it's that losing control so if i put a tracker on
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i know exactly where she's going and indeed he did mark tried to convince heather that it
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was for her safety he even offered to install the same tracking software on his phone his possessiveness continued
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for the first time in their relationship heather told him she'd had enough the rest continued at home the behaviour
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continued at home hell continued at home and ultimately she had had enough in her mind the relationship was over
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and it was a question of how she would bring it to an end around this time it's thought that mark
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discovered a message advice that heather had received from a friend called rebecca
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heather's spoken to rebecca some months after rebecca's i've said to her i think
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you're an abusive relationship and she said i can't i can't forget what you
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said to me i can't get it out my head and at that moment there's that acceptance
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i'm in an abusive relationship and my friend's seen it so then it's the
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thought of what what what do i need to do now what what can i do now i think when it got
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confirmed for heather you know that somebody else said no this is wrong that almost gave her the confidence to think
00:22:01
i'm going to leave him i'm going to do something about this [Music] given how he had proposed all those
00:22:09
years ago mark arthur's behavior at the warning that she was leaving him may not
00:22:14
have surprised heather so no threats to heather threats to himself perhaps heather was too frightened of
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the consequences to follow through on her threat to leave him or perhaps as a catholic marriage meant too much to her
00:22:29
despite mark's increasingly dangerous behavior heather didn't immediately give
00:22:34
up on her vows instead she arranged to see a marriage counselor that's a brave step but it also means
00:22:44
that she's trying to figure out responsibility she's trying to figure out what part she's playing in this
00:22:48
situation heather said that she was experiencing controlling and manipulative behaviors from her husband
00:22:55
two really strong words controlling a manipulative it's very difficult for somebody heather to go in and actually
00:23:02
say i'm in an abusive relationship people do not go in and disclose i'm an abusive
00:23:07
relationship [Music] finally able to say the words that she was living in an abusive manipulative
00:23:14
relationship was a major breakthrough for heather mark could only watch as his wife grew in her own self-confidence and
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when he discovered that she had arranged to see a solicitor on the gosford high street he panicked
00:23:26
on one occasion heather um and her children were going to solicitors and at this point it seems she'd made the
00:23:32
intent to end the marriage in the relationship massive trigger for somebody like arthur
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we know that when that happens the escalation of violence and the increase in frequency of incidents increases and we
00:23:46
have a what appears to be a very sort of big display in front of his children of banging his
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head on a car so much that the bonnet was dented and the children were present once again mark's method of persuasion
00:24:02
forced heather to stand down she cancelled the trip to discuss divorce with the solicitor but had her threat to
00:24:08
leave him created a moment of reflection for mark or had it increased the chances that one
00:24:14
day his self-harm would turn to harming others what we as professionals know about threats to
00:24:23
kill yourself is that that is actually a veiled homicide threat so if somebody is saying if you leave me
00:24:32
i will kill myself what they're actually saying is i will kill myself but i'm taking you
00:24:39
with me he was saying to her be careful please be careful and heather didn't seem to think that there
00:24:50
was a danger friends and family became increasingly worried for heather in easter she took
00:25:08
her children to visit her father on the isle of wight she visited her dad with the children
00:25:15
eastern again and he formed the opinion that she wasn't happy but to ask that question of heather
00:25:25
still at that stage to say no i'm not happy and i'm thinking or leaving it's probably a step too far at that at
00:25:32
that time now the father is clearly not happy about what he's hearing there's some real concern there
00:25:42
but it's not always simple for victims of domestic abuse to walk away even when
00:25:47
family members offer their support mark's use of self-harm as a threat continued
00:25:52
one of the high-risk indicators which we would use to predict future violence or
00:25:57
homicide is actually the perpetrator's threat of self-harm some will actually self-harm in front of
00:26:05
their partner because that very quickly changes the dynamic of that situation and in this case we've heard that mark
00:26:12
did use self-harm and threats of self-harm several times throughout the relationship
00:26:20
heather's only release was with a few friends like paul the saxophonist in the
00:26:24
jazz band heather spoke to paul and she used the phrase i'm walking on eggshells this
00:26:30
phrase is used so often by women in abusive relationships and it's a reflection of perhaps what's going on at
00:26:35
home or in the relationship very much around i don't know what moody's going
00:26:40
to be in i i do not know which author i'm going to have from one minute to the next because part of the power
00:26:47
and control dynamic and the coercive control is for different behaviors to be going on all the time
00:26:53
this means that we're also potentially seeing a build in the behaviors towards
00:26:57
her by her husband but as opposed to this making her afraid it makes her want to transition she's decided she wants to
00:27:05
be with paul paul and heather shared a love of music he too was creative heather was beginning to fall for him
00:27:14
inevitably this relationship continued to develop and after one particular evening on the
00:27:20
13th of april a jazz event their relationship went to the next level there was some emotional connection
00:27:26
before that but it was only at that point that it became sexual that it became romantic
00:27:33
that quickly grew she quickly realized she was in love with this man she quickly realized that this was the
00:27:39
relationship the kind of relationship she should have had all along sometimes it takes meeting another love
00:27:45
interest to suddenly recognize how different a good relationship is paul is that relationship
00:27:55
paul becomes her confidant but the more she confides in him the more concerned he becomes about her husband mark's
00:28:02
behavior he didn't know the man he never met the man but he seemed to understand the man
00:28:08
more than the woman that had spent all that time with him because he was saying to her be careful please be careful
00:28:15
and heather didn't seem to think that there was a danger [Music] heather had threatened to leave mark
00:28:24
before but her relationship with paul gave her confidence after years of unhappiness intimidation
00:28:30
and threats was mark finally losing control [Music] the coercion of i'll hurt myself if you
00:28:38
don't do this that's no longer working the old affection the the the the going
00:28:45
back to where they started you know the memories that all of these connections that's not working anymore
00:28:52
but somehow in his mind he has convinced himself that this is salvageable somehow in his mind he's convinced
00:29:00
himself that the the horrible life that he's given this poor woman since since they met in university is
00:29:07
going to still be preferable to the the fresh healthy life that she could now live he's obviously been having
00:29:14
conversations with heather about her being unhappy because he says let's have this one last chance this
00:29:24
last day out together as a family and let's just see if it can work this is what i would call
00:29:35
a change in thinking or last chance thinking it's a stage that's really quite dangerous
00:29:45
april 27 2013 and heather agreed to go with mark for what might be their last day out as a family
00:29:52
the other man in her life paul had concerns paul reports that she said to him that
00:29:59
she would be in public all the time and that she wouldn't be in any great danger but this
00:30:04
does show that she was in physical fear of arthur which is a real worry at this time
00:30:10
heather's a nice person she probably feels quite sorry for arthur so she agrees
00:30:18
to this last family day out because to resist that would probably cause a lot more trouble which is is what she's
00:30:26
trying to avoid a final day out with a manipulative husband prone to bouts of emotional
00:30:33
blackmail understandably put fear into others close to heather paul was sending messages throughout the
00:30:40
day warning heather to be careful it's almost as if paul knew what mark was capable of
00:30:46
despite the concerns the arthur family last day out passed without incident everything
00:30:53
goes okay without too much drama or anything but she does say that he's been
00:31:01
playing happy families like making a pretense perhaps making an effort finally making an effort to to be some
00:31:07
kind of husband but she's not interested she is not interested at this point it's
00:31:12
too late and he knows that now [Applause] she knew that he still wasn't accepting
00:31:23
that the relationship was over even though she told him it's one last day out and she says to paul he's pretending
00:31:29
it being the family thing and we'll have to endure his fury again and it's only when the day out ends
00:31:37
and a day out does not end in the way he expects it to that he finally faces reality
00:31:43
and unfortunately reality for him is 100 unacceptable heather told mark that despite the
00:31:52
happiness of the day she had not changed her mind the next morning on monday heather
00:31:57
promised to accompany mark to a gp's appointment he said he was worried that
00:32:01
he had cancer for jane month and smith and all to predictable attempted manipulation
00:32:08
he'd pulled another of these controlling tactics out of his bag of tricks and
00:32:13
he'd been saying to heather i think i've got cancer with the inevitable kind of
00:32:20
potential for his time to be limited for him to need looking after for her to feel sorry for him
00:32:27
and she did so she did go back because she was going to go to the doctor's appointment with him what
00:32:34
better way to keep somebody is to manipulate them into believing you've got cancer
00:32:41
difficult for somebody then to leave if they believe you're actually going to be
00:32:45
seriously ill heather drops her children at school before returning to mark but while she's out
00:32:53
she has a text conversation with her friend who who says to her don't go back
00:32:58
don't go back everybody knows that arthur is an unstable person and they're worried
00:33:05
for heather but heather did go home she returns via the shop where she buys some strawberries and pancakes and then
00:33:13
she returns home settling down to breakfast before accompanying her husband to his doctor's
00:33:19
appointment mark and heather's conversation began was she building up to breaking the news
00:33:25
that her decision to leave was final whatever was said mark was about to hear the news that
00:33:31
would devastate him i do suspect that mark will have been asking her to stay there'll have
00:33:37
probably been some begging he'll probably have threatened himself and there will been all of this almost
00:33:43
crescendo to a point where she needs to give him this firm analysis i am leaving
00:33:48
you there is no going back and i think that's at that point she decides to bring in the fact that she's
00:33:58
having the affair to give him a solid understanding that there is no future in that relationship
00:34:02
[Music] they started arguing and heather told him that she had been seeing somebody else
00:34:15
and that was heather lighting the touch paper but i don't think heather suspected that
00:34:25
arthur very likely already knew but heather's saying it challenging him in that way
00:34:34
showed him she's gone there's no going back it's inevitable it's the most dangerous time
00:34:48
just before or just after leaving one of those awful controlling relationships [Music]
00:35:05
until now mark had threatened and used self-harm as a means to make heather stay with him but that morning he went
00:35:11
in a different direction [Music] he loses it he snaps he grabs a kitchen knife and he stabs her
00:35:22
mark reacted by stabbing heather to death for the revelation that she was leaving him for another man
00:35:29
the question is why would she have expected that how could she have expected that
00:35:36
he takes a scarf he ties it around her neck and knots it tightly after 30 years in which mark arthur
00:35:43
dominated controlled and abused his wife the realization that she was leaving him
00:35:49
made him homicidal in that moment when he killed her he was mad as hell but it was just that he
00:35:56
wanted to make sure that absolutely under no circumstances would she ever leave him if he couldn't have her
00:36:02
no one's going to have her and let's be honest we have a direct insight because
00:36:05
if it was really about him harming himself he had a knife and he was there and he could have absolutely used it
00:36:10
against himself after killing heather he ran to the local gp surgery covered in blood
00:36:18
at about 11 o'clock he rushes to the doctors dressed in his underwear barges in and tells them what he's done
00:36:26
clearly someone at the doctor's calls the police and mark waits there for them
00:36:31
police arrive shortly afterwards and he's arrested when officers arrive at the home they
00:36:37
find heather dead in his study in a pool of blood next to his desk they remove the scarf that's round her
00:36:45
neck and they find the knife heather knew arthur was dangerous she knew he was controlling she knew he
00:36:54
could be violent i don't think she suspected for a minute that he was a killer
00:36:59
i think she knew the fury was coming and she knew the drama was coming but she she respected him enough to just
00:37:08
tell him the truth in police interviews mark told police that the murder of his wife heather was
00:37:17
the result of a rage of anger and jealousy at the news that he was having an affair
00:37:22
he claimed manslaughter not murder which would carry a lighter sentence he admitted that there had been an
00:37:29
argument he admitted grabbing her but he cannot remember stabbing her he's very very vague he sort of says that he
00:37:36
came to and realized that there was a knife sticking in her as police delved deeper into mark and
00:37:42
heather's relationship would they discover what heather had suffered at his hands over many years
00:37:49
if we're talking about domestic abuse coercive control the two key themes that
00:37:52
we see time and time again and in this case is about somebody's power and control over some dias
00:37:58
um one of the high risk indicators which we would use to predict future violence
00:38:03
or homicide is actually the perpetrator's threat of self-harm as police prepared their case against
00:38:10
the 50-year-old mark arthur friends of heathers were coming to terms with the news
00:38:16
you can't believe it it would happen to anyone but um certainly not to such a
00:38:20
life force as heather i wouldn't have predicted um and certainly wouldn't have wanted to
00:38:28
imagine heather in a relationship that was abusive or controlling in that way simon told me i
00:38:35
remember exactly where i was i was sitting i remember the seat i was sitting in in the bar
00:38:40
when he told me about it and i was absolutely shell-shocked i just remember the shock
00:38:47
and then looking online and finding the story which was obviously very distressing
00:38:54
in hindsight those closest to heather had always worried that something just wasn't right about mark arthur
00:39:01
she's got no side to her she's very unaffected my instinct about mark was
00:39:07
not the opposite of that but somebody that you thought um i'm not quite sure
00:39:12
what your agenda is but um as i say that that might be with the benefit of of hindsight but um
00:39:20
i don't i don't remember having a a particularly favorable impression of him
00:39:26
heather's dad mentioned there was something about arthur he just didn't like he gave lots of examples but early
00:39:32
on he did something about him he didn't like and it's about why that was what what was it that he
00:39:38
picked up what was it that he saw that he didn't like and what he could then do
00:39:43
with that it became clear to some that mark's proposal at niagara falls was a red flag
00:39:52
for the relationship so when i'll ask somebody about what's what was your first red flag quite often
00:39:58
it would be something around that well when he proposed or when he asked me to move in there was always a but there was
00:40:04
always a nagging doubt there was just something it wasn't quite the way they thought it
00:40:08
would be there was always a nuance that if i maybe didn't say yes then actually
00:40:13
things would change change quite quickly [Music] in the autumn of 2013 the trial of mark
00:40:23
arthur began at newcastle crown court he refused to admit to murder and admitted
00:40:28
instead to manslaughter in court arthur said that he killed heather in a moment of passion you know the red
00:40:38
mist came down didn't know what i was doing it was completely spontaneous crime of passion
00:40:47
but i don't buy that because looking at the way this whole thing played out with the last family
00:40:54
day and the threats to kill himself and the dramas and the control and the stalking
00:41:01
this was always going somewhere dangerous he said he had tunnel vision he vaguely
00:41:09
remembered things he remembered her basically walking onto the knife it seemed to be he was just trying to fudge
00:41:15
it make it look like he had completely lost all sense of his own functions and this happened in a momentary loss of
00:41:22
control jurors returned their verdict against mark in february 2014. [Music] he was convicted of murder and he was
00:41:33
sentenced to 18 years imprisonment we always say if you want to leave a violent and controlling partner do not
00:41:41
tell him you need to have a safety plan you need to engage professionals you need to speak to
00:41:46
support agencies who are local or national who will give you a safety plan there's nothing here they could have
00:41:54
done to prevented her murder the only thing she could have done is not to have met arthur in the first
00:41:59
place [Music] [Applause] [Music] you