ITV's Ruth Dodsworth installs alarms ahead of abusive ex's prison release

Ruth Dodsworth has revealed she has upped security at her family home in preparation for her abusive ex-husband's release from prison.

The ITV weather presenter and journalist spoke out last year after her ex-husband was jailed last year on charges of coercive control and stalking, revealing she had suffered over a decade of domestic abuse.

Dodsworth, 46, tweeted: "Exactly 1 year ago today my ex husband pleaded guilty to stalking and #coercivecontrol . I’ve spent this aft with @swpolice learning how to protect my home/family ahead of his possible imminent release. That’s our reality. Alarms everywhere! It’s all good but it’s not over. [sp]"

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She shared a picture of the security alarm panel in her home alongside a framed quote on her wall that read, "It's all good."

Jonathan Wignall, 55, pleaded guilty to one count of coercive and controlling behaviour and stalking ahead of his scheduled trial last year.

He was sentenced to a total of three years in custody, serving half before being released on licence. He was also given a restraining order against contacting Dodsworth.

The couple met in 2001 and married a year later. They have two children.

Dodsworth left Wignall in 2019 after he phone her 150 time in one day and he was arrested on suspicion of harassment.

Watch: Ruth Dodsworth says her children told her not to come home as husband threatened to kill her

Opening up about their relationship last year Dodsworth revealed he had controlled everything in her life; from what clothes she wore to where she could go and who she could see. He even planted a tracking device on her car.

She told This Morning the situation peaked in 2019 when her children phoned her to warn she would be in danger if she came home.

She said: "I’d been in work and during that week he had been phoning me hundreds and hundreds of times a day, text messages."

She went on: "That particular day he’d started drinking earlier in the day.

"By the time my children got home from school they were phoning me saying ‘Mum, don’t come home. Don’t come home. He’s going to kill you’.

“And I think, for me, that was a turning point. I didn’t go home that night, because I think if I had I wouldn’t be here now in any shape or form.”

Dodsworth recently told WalesOnline she has found a new partner and is moving on.

She said: "I am healing, I am having to re-learn living. Practical things like wearing what I want. That might sound so trivial to everyone else, but for so long I haven't been able to make those decisions.

Re-learning how to have a relationship with another man has just been the loveliest thing, but I have had to re-learn behaviours.

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"I don't have to hide my phone. I don't have to say where I am every single minute of every day. These are the things I am having to re-learn, but I am doing it."

If you've been affected by domestic abuse and would like support or advice, visit https://www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk or contact the Freephone 24-Hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247