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My girlfriend used to beat me silly British millionaire opens up on secret agony

News Express |1st May 2014 | 6,323
My girlfriend used to beat me silly —British millionaire opens up on secret agony

A San Francisco tech entrepreneur has opened up about the shocking beatings he allegedly suffered at the hands of his ex-girlfriend in an effort to make the subject of domestic abuse against men less taboo.

Ben Way, 33, claims, in an article published online Tuesday, that he was punched in the jaw, bitten, scratched, stabbed in the foot with a stiletto and struck in the genitals during the attacks.

Some nights, he told MailOnline, he even ‘hid the knives’ in the apartment the couple shared for fear his partner would take things further.

The British-born dot com millionaire met his younger ex, who MailOnline is not identifying, after he moved to Silicon Valley from the UK three years ago.

The couple were inseparable for about a year, and Way says he is still madly in love the woman who allegedly abused him.

‘It was a very loving relationship most of the time, and that is what makes it so difficult,’ he told MailOnline.

But he says things started to fall apart a few months back and after he requested some space his girlfriend clung on even more and then ‘snapped.’

“I was in bed, and despite begging you to let me sleep because I had work in the morning you would not stop shouting, moments later you had straddled me, your weight forced against my chest, the next thing I know you deliver three hard blows to my jaw,’ he writes in the first person piece posted on tech news website TWnow.com.

Way, a serial entrepreneur who started his first business aged 15, made $33 million by 17 and lost it all by 21 only to build his wealth again, intentionally doesn’t reveal whether he’s a man or a woman until half way down the article, so readers hear him out before offering judgement.

‘You would later pretend they were slaps, but the blue bruises on my jaw in the morning told a different story,’ Way continues.

He writes that while his ex promised it’d never happen again, ‘it did happen again and again, life was never the same after that for me.’

But the repeated abuse came to a head about a week ago, he says.

Way had temporarily moved out of their home because he ‘just could no longer live in a constantly aggressive environment’ but had moved back in as his partner was staying with her mother.

However, around 11:30p.m. one night, he says the woman stumbled back to the house allegedly drunk and screamed for him to let her in.

‘My heart got the better of me and I opened the door,’ Way writes in the piece. ‘When you started to get aggressive I told you I wanted to leave.’

But he says every time he would get to the door, she would scream ‘help, help’ so as to alert the neighbours, who he believes already thought he was an abusive boyfriend.

When things began turning violent, and it was clear her screaming would bring the police, Way says he pulled out his iphone and started video recording, ‘so that whatever happened I knew at least somebody would believe my story.’

‘As you repeatedly tried to grab at my phone I recorded you beating, kicking me and ripping at my genitals, by the time I had managed to barricade myself in the bedroom the police finally arrived,’ he writes.

‘At this point I could have easily had you arrested, but given that I loved you so much I hid the bruises and cuts across my body from the police and told them you were just shouting at me.’

According to Way, the San Francisco police officers did believe his story, but only escorted his girlfriend out of the house that night.

Way claims she remained outside the property for eight hours, beating on the door, throwing rocks at the windows and trying to climb up the fire escape.

He says he eventually had to call one of his girlfriend’s friends to come get her so he could leave his own house.

Way told MailOnline that writing the article was ‘tremendously difficult’ but he wanted to go public to help other men trapped in similarly violent relationships who may be worried or embarrassed to speak out.

He insists he’s not a ‘sissy,’ he goes to the gym and could have really hurt his partner if he chose to react, like he believes many boyfriends would have done. But he didn’t fight back.

‘She abused the fact I was a man. She knew that if she wanted to she could put me in prison,’ he says.

Way claims she also used his fear of being a foreigner against him.

‘It’s scary being an immigrant in the US, I’ve tried to avoid all issues with the police and she would use that against me constantly. She would say “if you don’t do as you say I’m going to call the police and tell them you beat me or raped me.”

“In the end, it took the police getting involved to realise how bad things had got.’

More than 30 men have got in touch with Way since he shared his story, confessing to have experienced relationships where a woman used ‘the perception of vulnerability to abuse and bully’ them.

Way says he’s also been overwhelmed with support from friends and family since opening up and hopes that his experience will help society accept that the man is not always the abuser.

He adds in the article: ‘I’m a strong, successful man, I deal with bullies and super stressful situations everyday, I’m not whining because some girl slapped me or trying to get back at her for doing so.

‘I just want society to realise that neither partner should be able to behave like this, somebody who you have let into your heart needs to behave in a responsible way with it regardless of sex.’

Way also insists his former partner is not a bad person, signing off his account, ‘For my ex girlfriend: I still love you, and I always will, maybe over time you will change enough for us to be back together, but for now please just learn from our experience together.’

•Credit (except headline): MailOnline. Photo shows the abused millionaire, Ben Way.

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