Jury begins deliberations in Charles Hanson’s coercive control trial
Jurors retired after hearing three weeks of evidence and submissions, including a claim that the Bargain Hunt star put his wife Rebecca in a headlock.
The jury in the coercive control and assault trial of TV auction show expert Charles Hanson has retired to consider its verdicts.
Jurors were told they were under no pressure of time when they were sent out to begin their deliberations at Derby Crown Court on Thursday.
Judge Martin Hurst told the panel of seven women and five men, who have heard three weeks of evidence and submissions, that if they need more time after Friday’s deliberations, the case could sit into next week.
Earlier, Hanson’s counsel, Sasha Wass KC, claimed the Bargain Hunt star’s wife, Rebecca Hanson, “was not controlled in any sense of the word” and was instead unstable and unhappy and “felt resentful and hard done by” at her husband’s work commitments before their marriage “imploded” in 2023.
Ms Wass asked the jury in her closing speech to consider whether an incident involving an alleged headlock , which Hanson claims was simply a hug, was “a real incident” which Mrs Hanson had distorted to “build up a false case” against her husband.
Ms Wass told the jury: “The entirety of the case rests on the testimony of Rebecca Hanson. There is nothing else. You have to be sure that she is reliable, accurate and truthful.
“The reality, I suggest, is that Rebecca Hanson is none of those things and she has used this court, a criminal court, as an extension of her divorce battle.
“She has not hesitated to lie.”
The trial has heard allegations that Hanson put his wife in a headlock while she was pregnant with a baby she later lost, repeatedly “grabbed” her, locked her in a hotel room, pushed her, and scratched her as she tried to snatch a mobile phone.
He told the court he was “almost a slave” to his wife, who left him “a beaten and broken man” by controlling him.
The Crown claims WhatsApp messages sent by Hanson to his wife, who is now 41, amount to a “set of confessions” to the charges.
In his closing speech to jurors on Wednesday, Crown counsel Stephen Kemp said the messages, including one in which Hanson promised to never again “lay a finger” on his wife, provide a clear picture of the couple’s relationship.
Mr Kemp also alleged that the account given to the court by 46-year-old Hanson, of Ashbourne Road in Mackworth, Derby, “stretched credulity beyond any reasonable limit”.
Hanson denies charges of controlling or coercive behaviour between 2015 and 2023, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and assault by beating.
The jury deliberated for around 30 minutes and will resume its discussions at 10.30am on Friday.