A mother who was abused by her ‘controlling’ boyfriend told of her anger yesterday after he was released just three months into a three-year sentence – because of ‘prison overcrowding’.
Hayley Johns, 38, said she was staggered to be told just six weeks after Matthew Kowal was sent down that he had already been earmarked for release.
She said Kowal, 34, walked free on Thursday and she is now living in fear with multiple alarm and camera systems installed at her home.
Ms Johns, who runs her own nail salon, said: ‘It’s terrifying. I just feel that as a victim I’m absolutely invisible, while he gets to come out of prison and move on to the next victim – because that is what he’ll do.’
She said her victim liaison officer delivered the news that Kowal was being released in a face-to-face meeting, adding: ‘I was told that it had been decided to release him because HMP Nottingham was full. I couldn’t believe it.
‘I have been totally and utterly let down…how can someone jailed for three years for what he did to me walk out on licence in less than three months?
‘Now I’ve got bolts across the front door, window alarms, cameras and everything else. I have an eight-year-old daughter and I’ve tried to shield her from this but she keeps asking why we have all these locks all of a sudden and I am running out of things to tell her.’
Kowal was found guilty in November of one count of causing actual bodily harm and one of common assault having previously admitted two counts of ABH.
Hayley Johns (pictured), 38, said she was staggered to be told just six weeks after Matthew Kowal was sent down that he had already been earmarked for release
Kowal was found guilty in November of one count of causing actual bodily harm and one of common assault having previously admitted two counts of ABH and was sentenced to three years in prison and handed a 10-year restraining order at Derby Crown Court
Ms Johns with Kowal. Since he walked free on Thursday and Ms Johns is now living in fear with multiple alarm and camera systems installed at her home
He was sentenced to three years in prison and handed a 10-year restraining order at Derby Crown Court on November 29, but Ms Johns told MailOnline that in the middle of last month she was called and told he was going to be released on February 4. In the event, he was released just over a week later.
Ms Johns said she contacted her MP, Jonathan Davies, who escalated the case to safeguarding minister Jess Phillips and the Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood.
She added: ‘Jess Phillips responded to check that I had been given adequate safeguarding measures such as extra security locks and cameras, but I’m still to hear anything from the Justice Secretary’, Ms Johns added.
The mother-of-three said she was speaking out about her situation to warn other women about the danger Kowal may pose them, even though she had been ‘completely let down ‘by the justice system herself.
Ms Johns said she met Kowal five years ago during the pandemic, when she took a job as a courier at a firm where he was already working in the depot.
‘He was incredibly charming at first and we had a whirlwind romance’, she added. But within nine months, she said, Kowal’s dark side emerged.
On New Year’s Eve 2020 she confronted him over pictures he had sent of himself to another woman.
‘That night he just went from zero to 100 like that and started assaulting me’, she said.
Ms Johns said she met Kowal five years ago during the pandemic, when she took a job as a courier at a firm where he was already working in the depot
Ms Johns said she contacted her MP, Jonathan Davies (pictured), who escalated the case to Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips and the Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood
‘Nothing like this had happened before, I don’t know where it came from, it was like an explosion.‘But he just reached out and said sorry and because it had not happened before. I took what he said on face value and just carried on with the relationship.
’Ms Johns said after that first incident she decided to take him back when he apologised and assured her it would not happen again.
‘But over the next three years until March 2024, there were a number of other episodes of violence – including Kowal smashing glass and flying into a rage in a bedroom.
‘He again said he was sorry and he was going to get help and so I withdrew my statement. From that moment, I just kept taking him back because social services became involved and I was scared I would lose my children. I also wanted to help him and whatever demons he had.
‘I started my own nail business, which took off, but he would belittle it. I don’t think he liked me having some independence.’
Ms Johns said the final straw in her relationship came following an incident in March last year when he barricaded her in the bedroom and she tried to climb out to escape and ending up in hospital.
She said: ‘That is when I knew he had total control over me and every choice I was making and I thought if I don’t report this he is going to end up killing me.’
Kowal, from Mackworth, Derbyshire, was remanded in custody in May.
It is understood that Kowal benefited from a double sentencing discount after was released early under a Home Detention Curfew scheme – having also qualified for the Labour government’s SDS40 (Standard Determinate Sentence 40) scheme to tackle prison overcrowding.
Under the scheme, inmates can be eligible for early release after completing 40 per cent of their sentence, rather than the usual 50 per cent. But although offenders convicted of domestic abuse are supposed to be exempt from early release, some abusers who have been charged with more general offences like common assault, such as Kowal, remain eligible.
In December, Liberal Democrat MP Josh Babarinde tabled a bill aimed at closing this loophole by creating a specific set of domestic abuse aggravated offences in the law.
Ms Johns said the final straw in her relationship came following an incident in March last year when he barricaded her in the bedroom and she tried to climb out to escape and ending up in hospital
Mr Babarinde, the party’s Justice spokesman, said of Ms Johns’ experience at the hands of the justice system: ‘It is a national scandal that our system currently leaves survivors like Hayley without the justice they deserve.
‘That is why the Liberal Democrats have been calling for the Government to urgently create a set of domestic abuse aggravated offences in law so that victims and survivors are properly protected and respected.’
The MoJ said Kowal would have been released with strict licensing conditions including an electronically-monitored curfew confining his movements.
A spokesman said: ‘Anyone released into Home Detention Curfew faces strict licence conditions and must be tagged. Those who break the rules face being returned to custody.’
Prisoners released via Home Detention Curfew are also subject to risk-assessment.
Mr Davies, the Labour MP for Mid Derbyshire, and a spokesman for Ms Mahmood were contacted for comment.
