TV star's WhatsApp messages 'set of confessions'

Messages sent by celebrity auctioneer Charles Hanson to his wife amount to a "set of confessions" to the charges against him, a prosecutor said.

In his closing speech to jurors at Derby Crown Court on Wednesday, Stephen Kemp said the WhatsApp correspondence - including one in which Hanson promised to never again "lay a finger" on his wife, Rebecca Hanson - show the true nature of the couple's relationship.

The 46-year-old presenter, of Ashbourne Road in Mackworth, denies charges of controlling or coercive behaviour over a 10-year period, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and assault by beating.

Sasha Wass KC, defending, said the defendant's wife "had an agenda" against her husband as their marriage "imploded" into divorce proceedings.

Mr Kemp read a series of messages to the jury, including one in which Mr Hanson said he would change or he would "have to walk", and another in which he offered to attend an anger management course.

A message sent by Mrs Hanson said she was fed up with her husband grabbing her, with others adding "I have had enough" and saying she "shouldn't be scared of my husband".

"You are going to have to work out where the truth lies," Mr Kemp said.

"If Mr Hanson has lied, I suggest it is pretty obvious why he would do so.

"If Rebecca Hanson has lied to you and to the police, I suggest it's rather difficult to understand why she would do so."

Mr Kemp said Mr Hanson made a "rather belated" and "desperate" assertion that Mrs Hanson was looking for a divorce, when she was trying to save her marriage as recently as June 2023 by pursuing counselling through Relate.

He said there was "an awful lot" of messages that "reveal an awful lot about what was going on at the time", describing Mr Hanson as "a man who realised he had no excuse or justification for what he had done".

"They were sent without anyone thinking that years later they might be used in a trial like this," he said.

"There really could not be a clearer set of confessions."

Ms Wass told jurors Mrs Hanson "felt remorseful and hard done by" despite living "a dream life", which she said Mr Hanson "had to work very hard" to maintain, and denied Mr Kemp's claims about the WhatsApp messages amounting to a confession.

"If you look at those texts in context he is doing no such thing," she said.

Highlighting an incident in January 2023 in which Mr Hanson moved antique furniture into their home at the time, Ms Wass said Mrs Hanson launched a "tirade of abuse" aimed at her husband that amounted to "shrewish and very unpleasant behaviour".

"The furniture episode will leave you in no doubt who was the dominant partner in the Hanson home," she said.

"The suggestion that [Mr Hanson] was coercive and controlling is preposterous."

Ms Wass also questioned the "integrity and authenticity" of photographic evidence provided by Mrs Hanson.

"All the evidence in this case comes from her, including the evidence of her mother and her friend because those two witnesses simply repeat what she had told them," she said.

"Rebecca Hanson made these allegations to the police in June 2023 at the very same time that she decided to bring divorce proceedings.

"Inevitably she would have had an agenda."

The trial continues.

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