I left my husband in 2010, two weeks after he raped me. He threatened to burn the house down with me & ds who was only 6 at the time in it, he lit all the burners on the hob & threatened to start throwing tea towels on it. Ds dialled 999 I got to the phone & told the operator it was a mistake but they sent the police to check we were ok, in the time from the phone call to the police arriving I had snatched a few clothes & things, stuffed them in a bag, the police helped me & ds who was clutching his pet hamster in his cage to the car & we spent the night in a travelodge, exh found out where we were & spent the night outside constantly texting me, the staff refused him entry. Eventually he disappeared, the morning after we went to my mum's, I went up to the house to try & get more clothes & belongings, exh had messed with the door lock so I couldn't get in at the front door but a neighbour climbed over the back fence & unlocked the back gate so I could get in, I packed as many bags as I could & left before exh came back. The first solicitor I saw advised me to take the police to force exh to leave, the police came with me but refused to force exh to leave, when we got there all his family were there & he refused to leave even though the house was mine & in my sole name, he had never contributed to the mortgage or bought anything in the house. I saw another solicitor who got me to court within a week, the judge refused to give me an occupation order straight away & listed the case for hearing 3 months later, he gave exh supervised access twice a week with ds, my parents agreed to supervise the access. I reported the rape to the police a month after he raped me, it took me all that time to tell anyone what he had done, I went to the rape suite, did the video interview, I got counselling sessions by a rape counsellor who realised I had PTSD, I was having nightmares, flashbacks, panic attacks, was suicidal & attempted 3 times to end my life with alcohol & pills, I was drinking to block out the pain I was suffering. I wasnt strong enough to cope with the hearing to get my house back & gave in so exh could remain in the house until he got a council place, I registered as homeless & eventually got a council house, at court I had to make a list of everything I wanted from the house, I got less than half of what I asked for despite the fact either myself or my parents had paid for everything including work done on the house like rewiring which my dad had done, tiling, decorating etc. In the meantime I had collapsed in pain & was admitted to hospital & a month later underwent a laparoscopy where the surgeon found I had extensive pelvic inflammatory disease which he suspected was partly caused by injuries I received during the rape as it was the only time we had sex for over 3 years, I had another laparoscopy to remove an ovarian cyst & to try to sort the damage but it was too extensive & the surgeon had to remove one ovary & both my tubes leaving me infertile. The day after my first surgery I heard that the police weren't going to charge exh with rape due to lack of evidence & not long after found out that my house wasn't fit to live in because exh had left it with no heating & pipes had burst bringing down all the ceilings & flooding it. My parents ended up paying for repairs that cost £5k to make it fit to be sold, as exh didn't have the money to pay for the damage he had caused, he finally signed to say he had no claim on the property, my divorce was finalised 7 months after I had left him, he divorced me for adultery as I had a new partner, I could have fought it but was advised it was easier to let him divorce me & fighting it would have meant months more in court & higher legal bills. Had I known what I know now I would have done what I have advised this lady to do, get as much as you can before leaving, secure as much property as you can & plan ahead for security.