A YOUNG mum has revealed the terrifying abuse she endured for five years at the hands of her TikTok influencer girlfriend.
Lauren Javens, 22, feared she was filming her own death as she captured Hollie Hanson making vile death threats as she strangled her.
Lauren Javens (pictured) saved her life by filming one of Hollie Hansen’s atrocious attacks[/caption]
Hanson (left) was jailed for the years of mental and physical abuse she inflicted on Lauren[/caption]
But the act of bravery resulted in the influencer being caged for the years of torment she’d inflicted – including setting Lauren on fire and smashing vodka bottles over her head.
Hanson, a social media star who has racked up hundreds of thousands of views, was jailed last month after admitting to controlling and coercive behaviour, threats to kill and assault by beating.
Speaking about her horrific ordeal for the first time, Lauren told The Sun: “I want other people to know that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
“For five years Hollie convinced me that she was the only person that will ever love me in this world. But really that was manipulation.
“She was just abusing me all along. The person I loved was my abuser.
“If by speaking out I can help just one more person, then it is worth it.”
Hanson, 26, subjected Lauren to a brutal campaign of physical and emotional torment which began shortly after the pair first met in 2019.
Lauren was just 17 when 20-year-old Hollie banned her from using her phone, monitored her use of social media and stopped her from seeing friends and family.
Recounting her ordeal, Lauren said: “We got together straight away, as soon as we met.
“I’d just turned 17, and she was my first love. I’d always wanted to be with her – she was quite well-known to people I knew, so I was head over heels when we got together.
How you can get help
Women's Aid has this advice for victims and their families:
- Always keep your phone nearby.
- Get in touch with charities for help, including the Women’s Aid live chat helpline and services such as SupportLine.
- If you are in danger, call 999.
- Familiarise yourself with the Silent Solution, reporting abuse without speaking down the phone, instead dialing “55”.
- Always keep some money on you, including change for a pay phone or bus fare.
- If you suspect your partner is about to attack you, try to go to a lower-risk area of the house – for example, where there is a way out and access to a telephone.
- Avoid the kitchen and garage, where there are likely to be knives or other weapons. Avoid rooms where you might become trapped, such as the bathroom, or where you might be shut into a cupboard or other small space.
If you are a victim of domestic abuse, SupportLine is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm to 8pm on 01708 765200. The charity’s email support service is open weekdays and weekends during the crisis – [email protected].
Women’s Aid provides a live chat service – available weekdays from 8am-6pm and weekends 10am-6pm.
You can also call the freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
“I just thought she couldn’t do anything wrong. Then she started changing when we moved in together.
“When she’d had a drink, she’d argue with me over irrelevant things. I never argued back because I thought it was just the drink.”
Hollie’s need for control quickly became apparent – Lauren was told that the couple would share just one phone.
She was told she couldn’t have her own social media profile and was ordered to hand over all her passwords.
She destroyed every connection I had – I was pregnant, alone, and completely dependent on her.
Lauren Javens
Lauren said: “This was three months into the relationship. I thought that’s what I needed to do to reassure her.
“Looking back, they were the first steps to controlling every part of my life.
“But I was so young and so in love with her at this point I couldn’t see it.”
Lauren described how Hollie quickly isolated her from family and friends, making her block their numbers and cutting her off completely.
When Hanson was jailed for driving offences in 2020, Lauren fell pregnant in a short-lived relationship.
The pair reconnected upon her release from jail with Hollie soon breaking her promise of a fresh start for the couple.
Lauren said: “She didn’t like that I had a child with someone else. The thought of my baby having a dad made her sick.
“She destroyed every connection I had – I was pregnant, alone, and completely dependent on her.
“She spent my pregnancy telling me I shouldn’t have the baby.
“She was always jealous and even when I was giving birth she was whispering in my ear ‘if this kid looks like his dad I’m leaving you’.
PHYSICAL AND MENTAL TORTURE
One of the most shocking incidents came shortly after Lauren’s son Enzo was born in 2021.
She said: “When he was two weeks old, she burnt everything he owned.
“She threw it all in a fire bin in the garden – everything was gone. Every single thing he owned.”
The physical abuse sustained by Lauren saw her punched, beaten and even wounded.
In January 2020, Hanson assaulted Lauren with a vodka bottle, knocking her unconscious before slashing at her leg.
Too scared to report the incident, Lauren told medics at hospital that she had accidentally cut herself on a shard of glass.
Lauren said: “She knocked me clean out.
“When I came to, she was holding me in her arms, but I had four gashes on my legs from where she’d attacked me while I was unconscious.
“I thought if I told the doctors what really happened then I’d have nowhere to live – I relied on her for everything.”
In another incident, Hanson poured a jerry can of fuel on Lauren before setting it alight with a cigarette, causing her thigh-high boots to catch fire.
Lauren recalled: “She threw the last bit of her cigarette, and it hit the fuel and there were just flames up my legs.
“I managed to put them out but the boots literally melted to my legs.
“Luckily I had jeans on underneath and not just bare skin, because I’d definitely have scarring after that.”
The abuse wasn’t limited to physical violence.
Hollie destroyed Lauren’s belongings in fits of rage, cutting up her clothes and smashing her makeup.
On another occassion, Hanson hurled an air fryer across the kitchen because the Mexican chicken dish Lauren was cooking for dinner was not what she wanted to eat.
She threw the last bit of her cigarette, and it hit the fuel and there were just flames up my legs.
Lauren
“Then she punched me in the face – one blow. I tell you, I had the two biggest black eyes you’ve ever seen in your life,” said Lauren.
“She even refused to let me into the flat sometimes. I’d have to walk the streets until she let me back in.”
Lauren revealed the psychological toll the relationship took on her. “She made me believe I needed her for everything – money, a roof, everything.
“She convinced me I was the problem for so long. I couldn’t cope without her, and she loved that. She knew I’d always go back.”
The breaking point came in September last year during a terrifying incident in which Hollie strangled Lauren while demanding to know who she had been texting.
By this point, Lauren was actively looking to leave the relationship.
She said: “I completely fell out of love with her. She was just horrible, she made me depressed, and I knew that she was the problem at this point.
“She’d convinced me I was the problem for so long. I got to a point where I knew that she was the problem.
“I gained contact with my family again, and she hated that, but I refused to give that up.
“I didn’t rely on her for anything anymore.”
LIFE-CHANGING MOMENT
Fearing for her life as Hollie charged towards her, Lauren reached for her phone and used muscle memory to unlock the device and record the attack.
She said: “She had her hands around my throat, only letting me breathe every few seconds.
“She said, ‘If you don’t tell me, I’m going to kill you. I’d rather kill you than let you be with anyone else.’ I genuinely thought I was going to die.
“I thought if I die now, someone has to know what happened. I genuinely thought I was filming my own death.
“I could see something had switched in her eyes this time compared to every other attack that she’d ever done.
“I just knew that this time was different,” she added.
Hollie deleted the video from Lauren’s phone, but Lauren had already sent it to her aunt, who kept it as evidence.
The Sun has seen the harrowing footage but has chosen not to show it.
After enduring five years of abuse, Lauren finally escaped.
Hollie was later on the run for 18 days, posting videos on TikTok while hiding out at strangers’ houses before posting on the platform that she would hand herself in.
Now in a healthy relationship with her roofer partner James Javens, 29, Lauren is rebuilding her life and revealed she is pregnant with her second child.
She said: “I’m better now but it still haunts me every day. Five years of my life have just gone and I’ll never get that time back.
“I feel like I was kept captive for five years. “If I were to see someone I knew in the street or in a supermarket and even looked in their direction, she would flip.
“She’d scream in front of them. Honestly, it was just embarrassing. But I just put my head down and just walked on.
“Hollie would promise to change, and I believed her every single time because I wanted her to love me.
“Looking back now, I wasn’t loved, it was just manipulation.
“I couldn’t physically cope without her at all, but she loved that, so she knew that I’d go back to her in a heartbeat.
“My relationship with James is so healthy. He treats me like a princess and I know he will never hurt me.
“We’ve got our own home together so I’ve got stability which is something I’ve never had.”
MONSTER JAILED
Hanson was jailed for four years at Leeds Crown Court after admitting controlling and coercive behaviour, wounding without intent, intentional strangulation, threats to kill and assault by beating.
Judge Mushtaq Khokhar told Hanson: “You banned her from social media. You controlled her financially. You controlled her contact with her own child.
“You were so possessive and obsessed with her, and controlling, that on one occasion you burned her child’s clothing.
“On another occasion, you had poured a jerry can of fuel over her body and then you had thrown the cigarette to become alight.
“Mercifully, no injury was sustained from it but it could have been worse than it was.”
Describing Hanson as a “dangerous offender”, Judge Khokhar said: “It was a horrendous experience to undergo at the hands of someone you think you love.”
He added: “In my judgment, there’s nothing worse than controlling someone’s emotions, their movements and also preventing someone from associating with people that person wants to associate with.
“This behaviour consisted of controlling who she had contact with, who she could meet and who she could not meet. She had to report to you as to where she was at any given time. She could not use her phone at times without your permission.”
The court heard that Hanson has applied for a gender recognition certificate while on remand at HMP New Hall women’s prison.
She now wants to be known as Ryder Hanson with the pronouns ‘he/him’ and ‘they/them’.
Hanson was handed a lifetime restraining order to keep away from Lauren.
Hanson set Lauren on fire and slashed her legs with broken glass[/caption]
Lauren has found love with husband James Javens but says her horrifying ordeal still haunts her[/caption]
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