LYING in bed, shocked and in pain, Charlotte Bailey tried to process what had just happened.
Shaun O’Shea, her fiancé and father of her one-year-old daughter, had just subjected her to an unspeakable rape ordeal.
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Their future together was finished.
Charlotte, in her bedroom at home in Manchester, forced herself to focus. Somehow, she felt she knew what she had to do.
She nervously pressed record on her phone and asked O’Shea why he’d done it.
Caught off guard, he admitted to the rape on tape not realising he was being recorded.
“I asked him why he’d raped me and he replied: ‘I had to show you who ruled the roost. You didn’t say no, you just said stop’.”
From that moment on, O’Shea’s fate was sealed and in April last year, he was convicted of rape and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
“I had to do something, because I knew what the justice system could be like and how hard it can be to secure a conviction for rape,” says Charlotte, who recently set up a recruitment agency.
“And I knew Shaun would gaslight me.”
Despite her fiancé’s eventual imprisonment, Charlotte remains devastated that the man she was due to marry – her daughter’s father – did something so unthinkable.
Such was the brutality of the attack that she required hospital treatment for a perforated uterus.
Rape or attempted rape by a partner or former partner is shockingly common.
A study by the Crime Survey for England and Wales found that 44 per cent of cases of rape or attempted rape were committed by a partner or former partner.
The police recorded 69,184 rape offences in England and Wales in the year ending June 2024, up 2 per cent on the previous year, according to the Office For National Statistics.
When Charlotte first met O’Shea on a dating app in late 2020, she was pregnant and feeling vulnerable as her relationship with the child’s father had recently ended.
She was surprised when she got his message.
“Hello beautiful, I’m Shaun,” it read. “I’d love to get to know you better.”
The pair chatted and Charlotte was frank about her pregnancy. She was both shocked and delighted when O’Shea said it didn’t matter to him.
When they met up a few weeks later at a bar in Manchester, there was an instant attraction.
Things quickly progressed and Charlotte was overjoyed when O’Shea said he would treat her baby as his own.
She believes that could be why she put aside the doubts that crept into her mind when he told her he’d served 16 years in prison after receiving a life sentence for GBH.
Looking back, I think the whole thing was premeditated
Charlotte
“He claimed he’d been mugged and was simply defending himself,” says Charlotte.
“It was only a lot further down the line that he admitted the victim had been in a coma, which was disturbing.”
But when her son was born in 2021, O’Shea, a utilities operative who worked on digging up roads, kept to his word.
“He would crawl around on the floor, playing with my little boy’s cars and dinosaurs,” Charlotte recalls.
“When I found out I was pregnant with our daughter the following year, we were thrilled.”
But when Charlotte was five months pregnant, O’Shea was sent back to prison.
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“A man tried to get into his car and there was some sort of scuffle,” says Charlotte.
“He didn’t tell his probation officer and he was recalled to prison.”
Their daughter was six months old when O’Shea was released, after serving ten months.
At first, he had to stay in a hostel, but after a series of risk assessments, he was allowed back home with Charlotte and their two young children.
Not long afterwards, he proposed at their home and Charlotte accepted straight away.
I screamed at him to stop, but the more I struggled, the more he hurt me
Charlotte
“He bought me a diamond ring. I was so happy,” she says.
“We were going to get married and Shaun was a good provider.”
But when O’Shea began taking steroids to build muscle, his sex drive went “through the roof”.
Charlotte says: “At first, I was flattered when he asked me to send him saucy snaps while he was at work. Not many new mums feel so desirable.
“But with two young children to care for, I wasn’t really in the mood and told him I didn’t want to.”
One day in July 2023, O’Shea announced he wanted to take Charlotte for a night out in Manchester, so she arranged for the children to spend the evening at her parents’ house.
Monstrous ordeal
“We rarely went out, so it sounded fun,” she says. “But looking back, I think the whole thing was premeditated.
“I had a couple of gin and tonics at home, then we went to a few bars in town. But as I wasn’t used to drinking, it went to my head. That, I think, was all part of the plan.”
After the couple returned home, Charlotte’s next memory is of waking up on the bedroom floor, naked.
“I must have fallen asleep,” she says.
O’Shea was leaning over her, a large policeman’s torch was in his hand.
He then subjected Charlotte to a monstrous ordeal.
“I screamed at him to stop, but the more I struggled, the more he hurt me,” she says.
When it was over, Charlotte lay there, stunned. Despite feeling shell shocked, she knew she needed to secure a confession from him.
After O’Shea had calmed down, he let Charlotte put on her pyjamas and handed over her phone from the bedside table.
“I hit record and put the phone face down so he couldn’t see the screen and what I’d done,” she says.
“After he said he had to show me who ruled the roost, he added: ‘You’ll be getting the torch again tomorrow.’ It was weird, but he asked for a cuddle at that point. But it was very deadpan, like he didn’t mean it.
“Crying, I waited until he had fallen asleep, then sent a message to a friend on Facebook who I could see was online.
“I asked him to call the police because I couldn’t speak.”
In a way, it might have been easier if it had been a stranger
Charlotte
Charlotte then crept quietly downstairs and waited.
“Minutes later, I heard the police arrive. I’d unlocked the door and they burst in,” she says.
“There were about six officers, men and women. They went straight upstairs. I heard Shaun put up a bit of a fight, then he was handcuffed and dragged downstairs. He didn’t say anything to me.”
Charlotte was taken to a police station, where she fell asleep in a room she was put in. When she woke up, she was in severe pain.
‘New life‘
The police took her to hospital, where it was found she had a perforated uterus as a result of her ordeal.
“I was in hospital for a week,” she says.
“The doctors told me my uterus would heal itself, but a couple of weeks later I began getting severe pains, so I drove to my parents’ house. They called an ambulance and once inside, I became feverish and blacked out.
“At the hospital I was told I had sepsis, caused by the earlier internal damage.
“I spent another week there, on an IV drip, and thankfully recovered.”
“I’ve been told if I have more children I could be at risk of rupture in my uterus.”
Initially, O’Shea denied rape to the police, but faced with the evidence on Charlotte’s phone, he eventually switched his plea to guilty before the case came to trial.
“I couldn’t bring myself to go to court,” says Charlotte.
“My gut dropped when I heard the sentence. I thought it would be longer.”
Charlotte is still struggling to come to terms with the fact that the man she loved could have done something so brutal.
“I trusted him – he’s the father of my daughter,” she says. “In a way, it might have been easier if it had been a stranger.”
Despite everything, the mum-of-two is determined to rebuild her life. She recently set up her recruitment business and although she has been diagnosed with PTSD, she says all her strength is focused on recovery.
“I don’t hate Shaun at all,” says Charlotte, who has since left the home she shared with O’Shea.
“I think the strength it’s taken me to build mine and the kids’ lives back up leaves no room for anything else. I’ve also started trauma therapy.
“It’s scary starting a new life, but it can be done.”
- If you have been raped or suffered sexual assault, you can call Rape Crisis’ free Rape & Sexual Abuse Support Line 24 hours a day on 0808 500 222.
