A Conservative Party council leader is facing shocking allegations of abuse from five women.
The BBC has heard exclusive accounts from the women who say he kicked, punched, spat at and emotionally abused him.
Jonathan Nunn, a long-serving Tory councillor who sits on the West Northamptonshire Council, has acted as a spokesperson for various women’s initiatives over the years, but is now facing allegations that could put his previous roles to shame.
Reports in the BBC – which he strenuously denies – have led to calls for his resignation, while the council’s response has been criticized as weak.
“Angriest person” she had ever met
Until recently, the only evidence of an allegedly violent nature was Mr Nunn’s conviction in 2004 for assaulting his then wife, Janice Nunn, for which he received a community order.
After the attack, police said Mrs Nunn, 50, had bruising to her shoulder, arms, chest, back, buttocks and legs.
A medical practitioner also found she had been dragged by her hair.
Mrs Nunn told the BBC she suffered repeatedly during their two-year marriage and described her husband as “the angriest person” she had ever met.
Carolyn Marks, who was also allegedly in an abusive relationship with Mr Nunn, said she was made to feel worthless by the Tory councillor.
“He would say ‘Look at you. You’re not worth having. Who’s going to want you?’.”
West Midlands Police recorded a domestic violence incident against Mr Nunn in 2008 after Ms Marks reported him.
In an audio recording shared with the BBC, he is heard repeatedly swearing at her for throwing half a pizza in the bin and calling her a “waste of space”.
Allegations that Mr Nunn has abused several women emerged in January in the form of emails sent by his first wife, Maria Botteril.
Mrs Botteril, 57, was in a relationship with Jonathan Nunn for 10 years from 1990.
“Whacked”
She has claimed he threatened her with a knife on more than one occasion, “whacked” her while she was a passenger in his car, spat at her and held her against the floor.
She said the abuse grew more intense when she became pregnant.
“He punched and kicked me all the time,” she said. “Once I remember curling up in a ball to protect the child and him just kicking me.”
A spokesperson for WNC said it considered the BBC’s findings to be “serious allegations, but ones strenuously denied by the leader”.
“The council is not in a position to validate them as that is a matter for the police,” they added.
Related: ‘Everyone look at Rayner’: Sordid details of Menzies’ cash requests revealed