Moment terrified mother-of-four is held at gunpoint by her stalker ex-boyfriend – as she slams decision to release him from prison despite Parole Board saying he’s not safe to live in the community

• Rhianon Bragg was held at gunpoint by Gareth Wyn Jones in North Wales in 2019

This is the terrifying moment a mother-of-four was held hostage at gunpoint by her stalker ex-boyfriend for eight hours and left fearing she would never see her children again.

Rhianon Bragg, from Snowdonia in North Wales, was subjected to a campaign of harassment by Gareth Wyn Jones after she ended their relationship in 2019 which culminated in the horrifying ordeal.

The brave mother has since revealed she felt his horrendous stalking was ‘much worse’ than being held at gunpoint, and has slammed news that he will be freed next year despite concerns about the safety of the public.

The former mechanic is currently serving a four-and-a-half year jail term for stalking and making threats to kill, but is set to be released in February automatically at the end of his sentence. 

That’s despite a Parole Board panel last month finding it would not be safe to release him and that he has never accepted culpability for his crimes, with his victim calling his impending freedom ‘absolute madness’.

Ms Bragg met mechanic Jones, when he came to fix a puncture she had while rushing to see her father who’d had a stroke

Speaking on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday, Ms Bragg again slammed the decision to release him and revealed the terrifying impact his actions had on her.

She claimed that despite the horror of being held at gunpoint, the ’emotion’ she felt while being stalked by him was ‘much worse’.

She told host Susanna Reid: ‘You talked about when I could see him, in some ways that’s almost the easier type [of thing to deal with].

‘It’s when you can’t see them and when you don’t know where they are and when you don’t where they’re going to crop up next.’

Ms Bragg added that the nightmare of being stalked by her ex left her thinking about ending her own life as a way to escape him. 

READ MORE HERE:  Ministry of Justice is slammed for sending victim’s personal details to her violent stalker in clerical error

She said: ‘It had got to the point where the pressure was so intense, it was so incessant – I’d been reporting to the police all the way through, I was being told nothing was happening, that they couldn’t do anything about it – and it had got to the point where I was considering taking my own life as a way out. 

‘To have the gun at your chest and someone else making the decision that they’re going to end your life isn’t as bad as someone behaving to you in such a way that you consider taking your own life.’

Jones had started harassing Ms Bragg and her four children when she ended their five-year relationship in 2019.

She reported Jones to the police a number of times, and he was arrested three times and had his legally held guns taken away, but no further action was taken and his firearms were returned.

Prosecutors later admitted they could have charged Jones three months earlier with harassment and spared Ms Bragg her gunpoint ordeal.

Last month Ms Bragg said the justice system was ‘broken’ after learning of his release and it came nearly two years after finding out the Ministry of Justice divulged details of her psychological report to Jones while he was in prison in a ‘horrendous’ clerical error.

Ms Bragg said: ‘I cannot conceive how anything other than a completely blinkered, unjoined up, broken justice system, would release an offender that it had just classed as too high risk to release.

The mother-of-four who went to the same public school as the Princess of Wales, said Jones ‘waged a campaign of terror, stalking and harassment’ against her and her children

Ms Bragg (pictured) wrote in the Mail that she recognised Jones’s semi-automatic weapon because she had previously used it to shoot clay pigeons

‘It’s mind-blowing, absolute madness – what will they say to his next victims? It’s not like they’re pretending he won’t reoffend.’

She continued: ‘We’re hoping for a workable, sustainably funded Victims Bill. I think there’s no hope of that, when the system can’t even contain known offenders.

‘We are just guinea pigs.’

Jones will spend five years on licence when he is released from prison, meaning he will be managed by probation staff with the chance of being recalled to prison if he commits further crimes.

READ MORE HERE:  Mother-of-four who went to Kate Middleton’s public school reveals how relationship with a mechanic and their break-up nearly cost her LIFE 

A summary of the Parole Board panel’s decision on Jones said that he had held ‘traditional beliefs around gender roles in relationships and evidenced jealousy and a sense of entitlement’, while struggling to manage conflict.

It found that he saw asking for help as a sign of weakness, and noted that there were emotional and mental health difficulties in this case.

A release plan where Jones would live in designated accommodation with strict limits on his contacts, movements and activities was not deemed robust enough.

The panel concluded: ‘After considering the circumstances of his offending, the progress made while in custody and the evidence presented in the dossier, the panel was not satisfied that release at this point would be safe for the protection of the public.’

Ms Bragg said: ‘I’m relieved the Parole Board recognise this offender can’t be safely managed in the community, because as one of his victims, I really don’t feel like I’ve been listened to at most stages of the justice process.

‘I have always said that he was mentally unwell and that he wouldn’t think he had done anything wrong. I don’t think that’s really been taken into account, at least now that’s been stated.

‘The night he held me hostage and was threatening to murder me, he even said that I had made his life harder because I hadn’t started a new relationship. He tried to use jealousy as an excuse, when there had never been anyone else to be jealous of.

‘He had always said that his previous relationships failed because the women ran off with other men, he’s never confessed to any abuse. I’ve met both his ex wives, they’re amazing survivors, who I admire greatly.’

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