Warning: Article contains images of graphic injuries that some readers may find distressing. Adam Wiggins beat his partner up and ‘left her for dead’ now she has taken the brave step of warning others
A traumatised woman says she felt “left for dead” by her insecure ex-partner who beat her up and ran away, leaving police officers to find her bleeding and terrified. Kerry Ford described how she felt “warm” with blood as she drifted in and out of consciousness after the horrific attack.
Serial woman-beater Adam Wiggins had been in custody prior to his sentencing for grievous bodily harm without intent on February 26, but received a suspended sentence and walked free that day.
Following the hearing Kerry bravely decided to share her story to warn other women and raise awareness of domestic abuse. “I really don’t want him to do this to anyone else,” she said. “He is the type of person who would do this again. He’s a horrible person.”
Kerry described herself as being “vulnerable” at the time she met ex-military veteran Wiggins, but that he seemed “totally fine” when she first met him around April 2025.
She said it didn’t take long for their relationship to deteriorate, with Wiggins showing signs of jealousy and first becoming violent around July.
“He was totally fine at first and then he started showing tell-tale signs of abuse where he was jealous of me – he would always want to know where I was,” she said.
“He drank an awful lot and he took drugs an awful lot and then it was almost like I wasn’t allowed to look at anybody, so I would walk around with my head on the floor because if I looked at anybody he would say I wanted to be with them. He would always accuse me of fancying his friends. It was just horrendous.
“Then the hitting started, where he would punch me and leave me with bruises. I was really vulnerable and not in a good place myself when I met him and I think he took that to his advantage because he knew that I was easy to manipulate.”]
Kerry described how Wiggins would put her down and call her names, which along with her vulnerable mental state made it feel difficult to leave him. In texts seen by WalesOnline Wiggins appears to call the woman “fat” and “elephant”. Don’t miss a court report by signing up to our crime newsletter here
Wiggins’ behaviour progressed into a serious incident against Kerry which saw him arrested and bailed. It was while on bail for this incident that Wiggins attacked her on August 16, leaving her bleeding and terrified.
Describing the incident, Kerry said: “On Friday night (August 15) he was out with his friends and he asked me to pick him up so I did that, brought him back to my home. I went to the toilet and he screamed at me: ‘Where’s your mobile phone?’ I said: ‘It’s in the bedroom.’
“He started going through my phone, asking me who I had blocked and asking why I had blocked these people. I said: ‘I’ve got loads of people on my blocked list, it doesn’t mean they’re anybody.’”
Kerry described how Wiggins became enraged which made her so scared that she wet herself. He then subjected her to the brutal attack.
Recalling the harrowing details, she said: “I screamed at him to get out of my house because I knew what was coming. He punched me, so I slapped him back across the face. With that, he told me: ‘Like that is it?’ and he saw red.
“I remember three or four blows to my face and side of my head and then I must have been unconscious because I woke up on the floor to him kicking me with my arm held up to my face.
“And with that I got up and I was completely covered head to toe in blood; I was warm. My whole body was warm and my face was warm.”
While she was in that state Kerry detailed how Wiggins ran off and left her there, as she feared for her life. “He ran off and my dog was cwtched into the side of me crying – she’s traumatised as well. She won’t go near a man anymore,” she said.
“I managed to get myself down the staircase and as I came stumbling down the stairs I had fallen into the door. He had got my car keys. Before he got in the car I said: ‘Adam please don’t leave me, I’m dying; phone me an ambulance.’ And he just drove off. I then managed to scream for help
“I got around to my neighbour’s whose reaction was: “Oh my god her throat has been slit,” because the blood was squirting. That was embarrassing as I was in my underwear walking the street. Then I went [back] to my home and that’s when I was in and out of consciousness.”
It was heard at the sentencing on February 26 how Wiggins called 999 after he left the scene. It was heard how he stated on the phone that he had assaulted someone, claiming he acted in “self-defence”.
He told the operator that the victim “might need an ambulance” but refused to confirm who was injured. Police officers dispatched to the area found Wiggins who was put inside a police van where he admitted that he had assaulted Kerry and should not have been in the area due to his bail conditions.
Meanwhile other officers found Kerry at her home with multiple lacerations to her head. They took her straight to hospital where she was confirmed to have a plethora of injuries.
“Police put me in the back of the car and took me to the hospital,” she said. “Staff at the Grange were amazing – they put me straight into a CT scanner and took me straight for X-rays
“They had to shower me three times to try and get the blood out of my hair otherwise they were looking at shaving it off because of the injuries to my head. I had 15 stitches to my head [for] three deep gashes to head, one broken wrist, one badly injured wrist and two broken fingers.
“I kept saying sorry to the nurse, saying: “It’s a Friday night you don’t need to be doing this for me, there are people here who are dying”. She said: ‘We don’t see this. We see people with broken noses and black eyes, but we don’t see this.’.
Wiggins of Queen Street, Pentre, pleaded guilty to one count of causing grievous bodily harm without intent. He has six convictions for seven offences of which three relate to the battery of “other partners”.
Judge Vanessa Francis called Wiggins’ actions “persistent and sustained” while she considered how he had “already spent time in custody” prior to the hearing. She said the time he has spent on remand is already equivalent to that of a 12-month sentence.
She sentenced Wiggins to 24 months in prison suspended for two years, which saw him released from prison on the day of the sentencing. Since her ordeal Kerry said she will continue to be affected by what happened to her, while Wiggins walks free.
“It’s been really hard,” she said. “My mental health is terrible, I couldn’t go out for ages. I was scared and I wasn’t sleeping. My doctor has actually diagnosed me with PTSD and put me on sleeping tablets.”
Frustrated, Kerry added that she was informed by a counselling service via her GP that she will need to wait three years to wait for psychological therapy, while Wiggins was told during his sentencing that upon his release he will begin a rehabilitation course, a mental health treatment requirement and an alcohol abuse requirement.
“I feel let down as the victim,” she said. “I’m living in fear, I have been through the worst time of my life and he’s getting help and I’m not.”
Kerry said the impact of Wiggins’ actions don’t stop with her, either. She explained: “My mum is the worst affected. “I went out on a night out in December and my phone was in my handbag and it accidentally rang my mum, its pocket dialed her, and was pressing loads of buttons.
“She woke my sister up at 1am and they got dressed to come and find me because they thought something was wrong and I was doing a code. And that’s horrendous for my mum to feel like that. I suppose she saw me in the state that I was, and my sister had seen me in hospital and cried every time she looked at me.”
If you or someone you know is affected by domestic abuse visit the Live Fear Free website or call the helpline on 0808 80 10 800.
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