Agencies London

The wife of a former Tory MP has opened up about the decade of abuse she was subjected to in her marriage. Kate Kniveton says she was ‘traumatised’ by her ex-husband Andrew Griffiths who allegedly sexually assaulted her while she was asleep and screamed at their two-week-old baby. He told her: ‘Nobody would believe you’ when she threatened to go to the police.

Ms Kniveton, who herself represented Burton in Staffordshire between 2019 and 2024, admitted that she often cried while being raped by Griffiths, who she said got so angry he kicked her out of bed. She added that Griffiths, from whom she took over as MP in her constituency, once shouted at their newborn daughter to ‘shut the f*** up’ after it cried for a feed.

Once a campaigner for women’s rights and a former chief of staff to future PM Theresa May in 2006, Griffiths was sacked from his government position after it was reported he had sent more than sexually explicit 2,000 messages to two female constituents within just three weeks. He was found to have raped and repeatedly assaulted his wife by a family judge in December 2021.

Ms Kniveton, who bravely waived her right to anonymity for an ITV documentary, said: ‘I am traumatised – not just by the 10 years of abuse I experienced – but the following five years where he continued to use the legal system to abuse me.’ Ms Kniveton married Griffiths, who she described as ‘very personable, charming and charismatic’ in 2013. The couple separated in 2018.

But in Breaking The Silence: Kate’s Story to be shown on ITV1, she admits that there were warning signs, which she brushed off as him being under pressure. She explained in the programme that every time she threatened to Griffiths to report his abusive behaviour to the police, he would tell her ‘Nobody would believe you, Kate. I’m the MP here. I’ve got a great relationship with the police — they all think I’m the blue-eyed boy’.

Even following the start of legal proceedings, Griffiths ‘erupted’ during contact sessions, using them to pressure Ms Kniveton into returning to him and publicly support him, the TBIJ reported. At a final High Court hearing in 2024, Griffiths finally accepted all findings against him accept for those of rape, which he continues to deny. In February 2024, a judgment was passed prohibiting him from any direct contact with his daughter.