Woman held at gunpoint by ex wants more protection
A woman who was held hostage at gunpoint by her ex-partner has called for a change in the law on restraining orders.
Rhianon Bragg from Rhosgadfan near Caernarfon, Gwynedd, was ambushed late at night by her former partner Gareth Wyn Jones.
He was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison but has since been released on licence.
But Ms Bragg said a restraining order against him would not give her enough protection to keep her safe from him in the long term.
The Ministry of Justice said it was unable to comment on Ms Bragg's calls because of Thursday's general election.
Ms Bragg's ordeal began as she arrived home after dark on 15 August 2019.
Wearing camouflage gear and armed with a shotgun, Jones jumped out of the shadows as she got out of her car and subjected her to an eight-hour overnight ordeal of threats.
Ms Bragg said her ex-boyfriend had been controlling and threatening for a large part of their five-year relationship.
He was released from prison on licence earlier this year, and the strict conditions of that licence mean he is still banned from large parts of north Wales.
When those conditions expire in 2029, a restraining order remains in place and will stop him from going within 800m (0.49 miles) of Ms Bragg's house.
But she said that was not strict enough.
"As it stands, the order doesn't cover the area that my children and I would need to live fear free.
"It's such a worry, particularly as we live in a rural area – how can anyone monitor that he's sticking to a restraining order?
"Before he held me at gunpoint, he'd already been arrested three times - that didn't bother him.
"He'd been given police bail with conditions and ignored them.
She added: "The other issue currently with restraining order is that the perpetrators often don't stick to them.
"There aren't significant consequences to breaching the order, so they really don't hold any water anyway."
Ms Bragg went back to court in June to ask for the restraining order to be strengthened and changed to cover a bigger area.
But the judge said the law did not allow this unless there was a change in circumstances.
"It's not right that victims are put in this situation – I honestly thought when I first approached the criminal justice system that everything's OK, we'll be safe.
"We haven't done anything wrong, he's done some terrible things, and I honestly thought in my naivety that would be it, we'd have nothing more to worry about.
"But that's not been the situation."
