Male victim of domestic abuse lies tells of his torment

Ryan Kerrison spent 56 days locked up in prison after his partner Kirsty Barr maliciously claimed he had subjected her to months of domestic abuse. Speaking exclusively to the BBC he shared the story of his ordeal.

Ryan can't even bring himself to say his former partner's name, preferring instead to call her the "perpetrator".

He sits in his family's living room, with photographs adorning the walls, as Kirsty Barr - the mother of his six-year-old child - serves a near four-year prison sentence at HMP Newhall in Wakefield for perverting the course of justice.

"I don't have any photos of my perpetrator," Ryan, 27, tells me. "I got rid of them all when her lies started."

Kirsty Barr is serving a prison sentence after admitting perverting the course of justice

Barr, 24, told police, and later national newspapers, that he had subjected her to repeated abuse, both physical and mental.

To quote a senior detective, Ryan was "depicted to the world as a monster" by a woman who "had her own devious and malicious agenda to try and ruin his life".

Giving his first media interview, Ryan is close to tears as he recalls how he spent his child's second birthday in a prison cell.

"It was my lowest point," he says. "My life was, and still is, my child. I wanted to end my life. My life felt like a revolving, torturous door.

"But I did not want to die a guilty man. So I decided, in that cell, to fight back."

Ryan met Barr through a mutual friend in late 2014.

He says: "She was funny, seemed really outgoing and ticked a lot of boxes for me. She seemed a really nice person."

'I'd just had enough'

But Barr, playing the victim, was later to tell a national newspaper Ryan became abusive in 2015 following the death of his father, a few weeks after they began dating. She claimed he began isolating her from family and friends.

"It was actually the other way round," says Ryan who, by now, was living with her in Hull.

"I'd always enjoyed playing football on a Sunday but she tried to stop me doing that. I wasn't allowed to go out with my friends. I was constantly questioned. It felt like I was under surveillance."

By December 2017 their relationship was fizzling out and Ryan left their home in Hull to live with his mother.

"I'd just had enough," he admits.

In early 2018, Barr began making malicious allegations of domestic abuse.

She falsely claimed Ryan had attacked her in her home but he says he pleaded guilty to assault by beating when he appeared at Hull Magistrates' Court on the advice of a solicitor. He was given a two-year restraining order and fined £200.

"I was young and inexperienced," he says. "I was told to just plead guilty and I'd get a fine. If I'd known then how it would turn out I would never have pleaded guilty."

Ryan's arrest by armed police was filmed by his family

Barr then falsely claimed Ryan turned up at her house just four hours after being given the order and threw stones at her windows. He was arrested for breaching the restraining order and kept on remand before appearing in court in August 2018 for the breach.

He was found guilty by a district judge, sitting at Hull Magistrates' Court, who ordered him to attend 31 sessions of a Building Better Relationships course with 25 days rehabilitation. That conviction was later quashed at Hull Crown Court.

His former partner upped the ante still further.

In December 2018, she dialled 999 claiming Ryan had chased her up the stairs and assaulted her, before cutting her with a knife and throwing her down the stairs. She told officers he had then put a gun to her head, police said.

Armed police were sent and Ryan was further arrested.

However, police said evidence and witness statements proved he could not have committed the offences, which then prompted an investigation into Barr herself, who was later charged with perverting the course of justice.

"There was CCTV showing me walking past a police station near my house at the time my perpetrator claimed I was at her house," Ryan says.

Ryan Kerrison spent almost two months on remand at HMP Hull

In October last year, Barr, of Barton-upon-Humber, North Lincolnshire, was sentenced to three years and nine months' imprisonment.

Ryan, a drug and alcohol support practitioner, believes the lies were her way of "getting her own back" after their relationship ended.

"She did not like the fact I was moving on with my life," he says.

What Humberside Police said about Kirsty Barr

Following the conclusion of the case against Kirsty, Ch Supt Christine Wilson said Ryan Kerrison had been "depicted as a monster" by a woman who "had her own devious and malicious agenda to try and ruin his life".

She added: "Ryan has had to watch everything he had vanish in the blink of an eye, being incarcerated for crimes he didn't commit and unable to be with his [child] - all because his ex-partner decided she would manipulate the system to see Ryan suffer."

Ch Supt Wilson said Kirsty had "portrayed Ryan to the whole country through national and social media as a violent man she was terrified of".

She added: "In reality, Ryan is the one who was suffering a tirade of abuse from the vicious and false allegations."

Ryan, through his TikTok channel, is now hoping to raise the profile of the impact false allegations have on men.

"I am not looking for sympathy," he says. "I just want to help others.

"I know there are many, many men out there facing false allegations, and it's torturous. If I can empower one person not to give up then I'll have done my work."

Mark Brooks OBE, of the ManKind Initiative domestic abuse charity, says false claims - including the threat of making them - are "a particularly nasty form of domestic abuse".

"Those making them purposely play on the fact that commonly society only believes that a woman can be a victim of domestic abuse at the hands of a man," he says.

"They do great damage to a man's mental state, reputation and sense of identity which can last decades.

"They also do a great disservice to women who are victims of domestic abuse because it undermines their case for justice and need of support."

Watch Ryan's interview on BBC Look North at 18:30 BST on Wednesday 12 April.

If you've been affected by domestic abuse or controlling behaviour, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line.

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