A 40-year-old victim of wife-battering has told how her husband tried to suffocate her repeatedly after she failed to satisfy his sexual needs.
Cindy (not her real name), the mother of two boys, 14 and 11, said verbal abuse started during her second pregnancy in 1991.
Her construction worker husband's temper deteriorated and he resorted to violence three years after their second child was born.
'He started with verbal abuse. I was very frail during pregnancy but my husband kept making complaints that I did not do anything properly - from housework to our sex life,' she said.
'He also repeated an old Chinese colloquial saying: 'Never feed a woman a full meal until she reaches 80'. Several times I could not make him happy and he suffocated me with a pillow. I struggled and fought him. He slammed my face and banged my arms against the door.
'I had bruises and needed to see a bone-setter for treatment several times. He apologised but without sincerity, saying it was all my fault because I didn't do things properly and irritated him.'
