The terrifying moment a woman was ambushed by her stalker ex-boyfriend before being held hostage at gunpoint for eight hours was caught on her home's CCTV.
Ever since, Rhianon Bragg has been living "on a countdown," dreading the moment the "Jekyll and Hyde" will be free to roam the streets after being locked up for four-and-a-half years. Now, it appears that moment is getting nearer as Gareth Wyn Jones is set to be released within in a matter of weeks – despite a parole board panel ruling it unsafe.
Ms Bragg branded the decision "absolute madness." She ended her relationship with her twisted attacker in April 2019, but the 57-year-old refused to accept it was over. He stalked her, sent messages and turned up at her home and was arrested three times. He had his legally held guns taken away, but no further action was taken and his firearms were given back.
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But events culminated when Jones ambushed Ms Bragg as she returned to her rural farmhouse in North Wales and kept her against her will in a barn overnight on August 2019.
The mum-of-four told North Wales Live: "As I got out of the car, he suddenly jumped out and bang, right in front of me, in his camouflage trousers and jacket and his black leather shooting gloves, he had the barrel of the gun in my chest.
“I screamed in shock, and I remember him laughing. The look in his eyes was furious. I asked him to put the gun down and he said no.
“I knew straight away there was nothing I could do, I was completely out of control."
Five hours into the ordeal, her captor left the barn and forced Ms Bragg to drive to his home.
“He was very Jekyll and Hyde, but I’d learnt to modify my behaviour," she said.
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“As I was getting in the car, he turned around and told me in Welsh that he loved me.
“And that was when I felt the shotgun belt he was wearing under his jacket.”
The following morning, Ms Bragg managed to convince Jones to allow her to go to a doctor’s appointment from where she called the police and Jones was arrested outside.
He admitted charges of stalking, false imprisonment, making a threat to kill and a shotgun charge and was jailed for four-and-a-half years- with an extended licence period of five years, formally making it a nine-and-a-half year sentence.
He was also made the subject of a 10 year restraining order, preventing him from contacting Ms Bragg or going within 800 metres of her home.
This month, a Parole Board panel found that it would not be safe to release him and that he had never accepted culpability for his crimes, but he is due for automatic release in February.
The former mechanic will spend five years on licence when he is released from prison, meaning he will be managed by probation staff with the chance of being recalled to prison if he commits further crimes.
Ms Bragg, from Gwynedd, told the PA news agency: "I cannot conceive how anything other than a completely blinkered, unjoined up, broken justice system, would release an offender that it had just classed as too high risk to release. It's mind-blowing, absolute madness – what will they say to his next victims? It's not like they're pretending he won't reoffend."
A summary of the Parole Board panel's decision on Jones said that he had held "traditional beliefs around gender roles in relationships and evidenced jealousy and a sense of entitlement", while struggling to manage conflict. It found that he saw asking for help as a sign of weakness, and noted that there were emotional and mental health difficulties in this case.
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A release plan where Jones would live in designated accommodation with strict limits on his contacts, movements and activities was not deemed robust enough. The panel concluded: "After considering the circumstances of his offending, the progress made while in custody and the evidence presented in the dossier, the panel was not satisfied that release at this point would be safe for the protection of the public."
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