"Raped Me While I Slept": UK Politician's Wife Opens Up About Years Of Abuse

Kate Kniveton, who served as Burton's MP from 2019 to 2024, has spoken for the first time about the traumatic abuse she endured during her marriage to former MP Andrew Griffiths, Metro reported. She alleges Griffiths sexually assaulted her while she slept, screamed at their newborn, and dismissed her threats to report him, saying, "Nobody would believe you." Ms Kniveton shared that she often cried during the assaults and recounted instances where Griffith's anger led to him physically kicking her out of bed.

The 54-year-old politician also spoke out about the ongoing abuse many survivors endure even after leaving abusive relationships, highlighting how family courts often fail to protect vulnerable children. Ms Kniveton, who succeeded her ex-husband, Andrew Griffiths, as MP for Burton, revealed that he once yelled at their newborn daughter to "shut the f*** up" when she cried for a feed.

"People don't think it can happen to professional middle-class people - but domestic abuse has no boundaries, it can affect absolutely anybody. When I was elected, I made a promise to be an advocate for victims of domestic abuse. I am traumatised - not just by the 10 years of abuse I experienced - but the following five years where he continued to use the legal system to abuse me," she recounted. 

Ms Kniveton, who described Griffiths as highly personable, charming, and charismatic, married him in 2013, and they separated in 2018. She explained how easily women can become trapped in unhealthy relationships. "He was very personable, charming and charismatic. In hindsight, I can see there were warning signs - but I always put it down to him being under a lot of pressure," she said.

"For most people looking in from the outside, our relationship was perfect, but the abuse had been going on for several years. Every time I said I was going to go to the police, I'm going to report you, he'd always say, 'Nobody would believe you, Kate. I'm the MP here. I've got a great relationship with the police — they all think I'm the blue-eyed boy," she added.

Behind the public image, Ms Kniveton endured a nightmarish existence. She alleged that her husband, sexually assaulted her while she slept and directed cruel abuse toward their two-month-old baby. She recalled waking to find him assaulting her, sometimes choosing to endure it silently, while other times she cried.

"It would start when I was asleep - I'd wake up and he would have started having sex with me...Sometimes I'd just think 'let it carry on' but there would be other times when I would cry. And those times he'd sometimes stop-not all times-but then he'd be in a foul mood if he did. I remember he'd be kicking me until he kicked me out of bed. And I would go into our spare room and barricade myself in another room for the night or leave the house," she revealed. 

The breaking point for Ms Kniveton came when she realised her newborn was also at serious risk. She had clung to hope that Andrew Griffiths could change, but when their two-week-old baby began crying for a feed early one morning as he prepared to leave for Westminster, he turned and shouted at the infant with intense aggression.

Griffiths, once a women's rights campaigner and chief of staff to future PM Theresa May in 2006, was dismissed from his government role after sending over 2,000 sexually explicit messages to two female constituents in just three weeks. In December 2021, a family court judge ruled that he had raped and repeatedly assaulted his wife.

Ms Kniveton's experience is now being featured in a new ITV1 and ITVX documentary, "Breaking The Silence: Kate's Story", where she candidly discusses the decade of abuse she endured from her ex-husband. The documentary also highlights issues within the family court system, which handles approximately 30,000 cases annually involving allegations of domestic abuse.

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