BBC One Bargain Hunt star Charles Hanson cleared of '10-year' abuse campaign against wife
Bargain Hunt auctioneer and Flog It! star Charles Hanson has been unanimously cleared at Derby Crown Court of coercively controlling his wife Rebecca and assaulting her. The BBC One star turned to his parents and smiled, giving a thumbs-up gesture from the dock after the jury foreman returned the not guilty verdicts on charges of coercive and controlling behaviour, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and assault by beating after a three-week trial.
The celebrity auctioneer’s parents, who were sitting in the front row of the public gallery, wept and hugged their son after he was discharged from the dock. Judge Martin Hurst thanked the jurors for their care in considering the case.
He then told Hanson: “You have been found not guilty. That is the end of the case. You will hear no more about it and you are free to go.” Speaking to reporters immediately outside the courtroom, Charles Hanson said: “I’m delighted that after a year and a half the truth has finally come out.
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“I can finally live my life again. I feel this burden has finally been lifted.
“It has been a tormentuous time and all I want now is to readjust to what has been such an ordeal. I am so relieved that this is all over.”
Jurors took about four-and-a-half hours to reach their verdict. They cleared the Bargain Hunt and Antiques Road Trip expert of two assault charges relating to incidents in 2015 and 2023, and a separate charge of controlling and coercive behaviour spanning from 2015 to 2023.
The 46-year-old star had previously told the court he was “almost a slave” to his wife. He said she had left him “a beaten and broken man” by controlling him and making him subservient to her.
She claimed he was violent towards her. She alleged he had put her in a headlock in 2012 while she was pregnant with a baby she later lost.
She also claimed he repeatedly “grabbed” her, pushed her twice during a bedroom row, and scratched her as she tried to snatch a mobile phone. But the jury of seven women and five men cleared Mr Hanson after being invited to consider whether he was “lying to get out of trouble” or if his wife had given an exaggerated account to the court.
Mr Hanson, of Ashbourne Road, Mackworth, Derby, told jurors his wife was allowed “to do what she wanted” but had experienced “moments and episodes”. These included an incident in which she claimed his legs being crossed amounted to abuse.
