TV presenter Ruth Dodsworth's 'bully' ex-husband jailed
- Published
The court heard Jonathan Wignall was an "unrepentant, possessive bully"
The ex-husband of an ITV Wales presenter has been jailed after a nine-year campaign of harassment and stalking during their marriage.
Jonathan Wignall, 54, set alerts for Ruth Dodsworth's TV appearances, accessed her phone with her fingerprint as she slept and tracked her car.
Last month Wignall pleaded guilty to one count of coercive and controlling behaviour and stalking.
On Wednesday he was jailed for three years at Cardiff Crown Court.
He was also given a restraining order against contacting Ms Dodsworth.
The court was told Wignall had a "fragile ego" and repeatedly accused Ms Dodsworth, 45, of being unfaithful.
He refused to let her go to filming locations without him, would turn up at ITV Wales' Cardiff studio unannounced and forced her to spend her lunch hour with him in the company's car park.
'Controlling and coercive behaviour'
The court heard the couple met in 2001, a year after Ms Dodsworth started her job as a weather presenter, and were married in 2002.
Wignall's controlling behaviour began in about 2010 when the couple moved from Swansea to Cowbridge in the Vale of Glamorgan.
She had become the family's main breadwinner as his nightclub business began failing.
Prosecutor Claire Pickthall said: "His alcohol intake increased as did his controlling and coercive behaviour towards Ms Dodsworth."
In October 2016, the court heard, family members witnessed Wignall pushing his wife over, causing her to fracture a rib.
Another time, it was told, he pushed her and grabbed her by the neck.
Ms Dodsworth said she was trying to appear like a "happy, sunshine-like personality every day" while feeling anything but
Wignall was said to have called his wife "incessantly" when she was working away, and that while home he would open her mail and stand outside the door as she used the bathroom.
He would accompany her to doctors' appointments and quiz contacts on her phone about the nature of their relationship.
Ms Pickthall said: "On one occasion she woke during the night to find him pressing her fingertip against her phone to access the fingerprint ID feature, and ultimately her phone."
When Ms Dodsworth decided not to return home after a shift on 17 October 2019, Wignall called her 155 times and threatened to kill himself.
When Wignall was arrested on suspicion of harassment, he told police: "Harassment? But she's my wife."
Wignall was later released on bail on condition he did not contact Ms Dodsworth, but messages he sent to family members raised suspicions he had planted a tracker on her car by December 2019.
'Alarm when she was on TV'
That was found and police found an app on his phone and laptop linked to it, as well as an alarm set to go off when Ms Dodsworth was on television.
Ms Dodsworth told the court via video link she had been left with "heavy debts" after discovering Wignall had borrowed money under their name.
After his arrest she was told she was being evicted because Wignall had not paid bills.
Ms Dodsworth also discovered he had pawned her jewellery.
She said: "Because of my television career I've had to try and portray a smiley, happy, sunshine-like personality every day, when how I felt was everything but."
Ms Dodsworth said she was left feeling "degraded" at work by her ex-partner's behaviour, and her confidence and health had deteriorated.
'Sorry for his behaviour'
Dyfed Thomas, defending, said Wignall previously ran a "phenomenally successful business" with the Escape nightclub in Swansea and the city's annual Escape In The Park festival.
When both came "crashing down" it affected his relationship with Ms Dodsworth.
He said Wignall had been "besotted" with her and was "sorry for his behaviour".
But Judge Daniel Williams told Wignall it was "clear you have no remorse".
He said: "You affect the air of a respectable and beleaguered but successful businessman. You're not.
"You're a fantasist with a fragile ego which makes you an unrepentant, possessive bully."
Wignall was sentenced to three years in custody and will serve half before being released on licence.
He was also given a restraining order against contacting Ms Dodsworth.