Liz Cole, Penryn assaulted by new husband Mark Woodcock

Liz Cole, aged 59, from Penryn, who works as deputy manager at a charity shop in Falmouth, says she was never given an explanation as to why an initial, more serious charge of GBH was dropped to a lesser charge of assault without her knowledge.

The retired BT operation manager’s plea came on the day his trial was due to begin in April (Image: Liz Cole)

Last month Mark Woodcock, 60, was sentenced to a four-month curfew, from 8pm to 8am, in which he must stay at his home in Ruan High Lanes, near Truro, having pleaded guilty to assault by beating his wife Liz at the marital home in Penryn. The retired BT operation manager’s plea came on the day his trial was due to begin in April.

A five-year restraining order was put in place, banning him from contacting his estranged wife in any way, and going to her home address or her place of work.

Finally the judge ordered Woodcock to pay £400 compensation to his victim.

It also emerged at the sentencing that he had been convicted of beating his former wife from a previous marriage.

Now his estranged second wife, Liz, says she wants an explanation as to why, at a pre-trial review four weeks before the trial to which she was not invited, the original charge from the magistrates’ court was dropped in favour of a lesser charge of assault.

Since the case was heard she has written to David Wolfson (Lord Wolfson of Tredegar, KC) who served as Minister of Justice in the House of Lords from 2020-22, who apologised for her treatment.

She also wrote to Jess Phillips, the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley and Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding, who, in reply told, her – “it is stories like yours that keep me going and keep me angry to keep trying to change the broken system.”

In an exclusive interview with the Packet, Liz said the couple originally met online in 2021 after she had been single for 20 years but decided she wanted to share the rest of her life with someone.

She said he had soon persuaded her they should get married, but she nearly called the wedding off in December 2021 before he persuaded her not to by ‘love bombing’ her and insisting it go ahead.

“He was distraught and telling me he loved me,” she said. “I was so in love with this man. I’ve never been in love before.”

The couple got special dispensation to get married at Enys House (Image: Liz Cole)

Despite her reservations, they did get married on May 25, 2022 at Enys House near Penryn. They got special dispensation to get married there as her great-grandfather had built the main staircase in the manor.

They had bought a house in Penryn together, with Liz paying off the remaining £36,000 on his mortgage on his flat in Ruan High Lanes as she had the money from the sale of her house, which had been mortgage free.

She said they had an amazing honeymoon in Roma and Tuscany, where he was fun, caring, loving, brilliant.

“But the minute we drove down this road [in Penryn] he changed,” she said.

Echoing her statement in court, she said he could be very charming and had cooked meals waiting for her after work and bought her anything she wanted until she told him to stop. But he could suddenly turn nasty and then act as if nothing had happened.

“If I said anything, he made me feel like I was a drama queen and what a wonderful, caring, generous man he is, because he can be. Any little issue he would make it feel insignificant,” she said.

Liz said on the evening of the attack on June 17 last year they were both supposed to be attending a surprise 30th birthday party for her son.

But when she arrived home she found Woodcock slumped on the sofa. He began saying he did not want to go and swore at her and she left at 6pm on her own.

When she returned home at 8.40pm, Woodcock was still there on the sofa. She told him he’d missed a lovely evening and started towards the kitchen to put the kettle on.

“It had been horrible all week,” she said, “and I was doing everything I could to cheer him up, to placate him, show him I love him, snap him out of it. When I asked him what was going on it was always ‘nothing’.

“I thought ‘I’ve had enough of this, I’m missing him’ so I walked over to him and said ‘Give us a kiss!’. I put a hand on his forehead to give him a kiss.

“He said, ‘F*** off out of my face’. I was getting really upset now. He threw himself on the floor as I was walking away, kicking at me like a child. I either said ‘What a child’ or ‘Stop acting like a child’ and laughed.

A later picture showing the bruising on Liz Cole's jaw (Image: Courtesy of Liz Cole)

“I turned towards the door and, as I turned, all I saw was he came flying. I fell round the corner. I heard the bang, the blood splay. I went fuzzy and when I came to I heard someone screaming and I realised it was me.

“I don’t know how I got my phone to try to dial 999 but I couldn’t get through. I had all the numbers from recent calls to arrange the party and I just hit the first one.”

Her sons rushed round and kept Woodcock at bay while the police were called.

She said following the attack she spent seven weeks drinking build-up foods through a straw and then seven months on soft food, and still can’t eat on one side due to an injury to her jaw.

“I ended up having a breakdown on anti-depressants and having panic attacks. I’m very jumpy with people behind me because he came from behind me,” she said.

She was off work for three months as deputy manager at the charity shop.

After the assault Woodcock put out social media posts saying terrible things about her and accusing her of infidelity, which the Packet has seen.

He accused her of being “evil and untrustworthy” in posts that he sent to her bosses at work, her family and friends, and which he put out on Facebook.

She said while she feels let down by the criminal justice system, she has nothing but praise for Falmouth-based Detective Constable Simon Rouse, saying he was the only person who was there for her through all of this.

“He was caring and amazing. He was brilliant, he was a good officer,” she said.

She said before she met Woodcock she had been a strong, independent woman.

“We lived a beautiful life at first,” she said. “But I did already have that life as I had been single and very independent for well over 20 years.”

She said she is determined not to let what happened to her define her, with support of her family and friends.

“I’m so lucky and blessed with the wonderful people around me,” she said.

"My conclusion with my experience as a victim with the legal side of the whole scenario is I understand why victims do not come forward and report abuse. If they are not getting the support and live in fear of their abuser it will just carry on."  

Domestic abuse can be:

• threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional) between intimate partner, ex-partners, family members experienced by people over the age of 16

Whatever form it takes, domestic abuse is rarely a one-off incident. It is often a pattern of abusive and controlling behaviour and can get worse over time. Domestic abuse can take in the home, but can happen in a public place or in the workplace.

For support, contact the local domestic abuse and sexual violence service, Safer Futures:

saferfutures.org.uk 0300 777 4777 (9am – 5pm, Mon – Fri)

or:

Cornwall Refuge Trust’s 24hr helpline on 01872 225629 for support outside of those hours.

Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence can happen to anyone and effects; individuals and their families.