Some marriages end in a whimper, fizzling out after years of unspoken grievance. Others explode with a bang, inflicting irreparable damage on all parties, despite any love that may once have existed.
The union of disgraced former MP Charlie Elphicke — the so-called ‘naughty Tory’ — and his wife Natalie, both 50, certainly appeared to be the latter: a volcanic denouement which exposed Elphicke’s infidelity, subjected Natalie to intense public humiliation and ended in a two-year prison sentence for Elphicke after he was convicted for sexually assaulting two vulnerable young women.
His month-long trial last summer devastatingly unpicked his disturbing behaviour, luridly detailing near identical assaults — one of which saw him attempting to spank his terrified victim as he chased her around the kitchen of his family home, shouting ‘I’m a naughty Tory!’ as his two young children slept upstairs and his oblivious wife attended a work event. The judge branded him ‘a sexual predator who used [his] success and respectability as a cover’ to abuse women.
It seems Natalie’s resolve to cast Elphicke aside has wavered: this week, having been released after serving half his two-year sentence, he has returned to the family home — to her mother’s misery
Surely, no wife could ever go back to such a man? This was precisely the thought of Natalie’s mother, Julia Pears, when she heard of her son-in-law’s downfall: at last, after more than two decades of turmoil during which she says she witnessed her son-in-law’s ‘predatory’ behaviour around women, this was the end.
It would be a fresh start for her betrayed daughter, who had dutifully arrived at court each day, hand in hand with her husband, choosing to sit in a quiet room rather than listen to the mortifying evidence in court — before dramatically announcing she was leaving Elphicke moments after the verdict.
But it seems Natalie’s resolve to cast Elphicke aside has wavered: this week, having been released after serving half his two-year sentence, he has returned to the family home — to her mother’s misery.
Mrs Pears is concerned for her daughter and fears silver-tongued Elphicke — whom she calls Charles — could use this opportunity to wheedle his way back into Natalie’s affections.
‘I don’t think he should be returning. This was the chance for Natalie to get free of the domination of Charles,’ said Mrs Pears, a former head teacher and one-time town mayor, speaking exclusively to the Mail this week. ‘I have witnessed it first-hand. He has a hold over her. He is at his happiest when he is knows he’s got a hold over someone.’
Today, Mrs Pears is mourning what she sees as a wasted opportunity for her daughter, who had been married to Elphicke for 25 years, to turn her life around.
‘This was the perfect break for her, the chance to set up a new life on her own . . . a fresh start,’ she says, full of emotion.
‘I was hoping she would go off on her own, particularly when she said at the court that was it, she was divorcing him. She said that to his face, then walked out.
‘I hoped being separate from him would make her realise she can manage on her own. This gave her a chance to realise that she doesn’t need him, and that what he did was very wrong.’
But instead of seizing her new freedom, Natalie — who took over her husband’s Dover constituency — has instead agreed to his return to the £1.4 million Kent family home which, it is understood, is one of the conditions surrounding his release.
Today, Mrs Pears is mourning what she sees as a wasted opportunity for her daughter, who had been married to Elphicke for 25 years, to turn her life around. Their wedding picture is seen above
And while Natalie has said she has filed for divorce, it seems she has not ruled out a future reconciliation, stating that they will ‘make arrangements to reflect this’ after his entire sentence period is complete.
One can see how, perhaps, a wife with almost saintly forbearance might feel she is helping to rehabilitate a troubled husband by getting him back on his feet.
No one can doubt the depth of Natalie’s love for Elphicke — immediately after his conviction, the former finance lawyer said she felt ‘profound sorrow’, adding: ‘It ends my 25-year marriage to the only man I have ever loved.’
That said, it’s difficult not to see, at best, a naivete in Natalie’s attitude to the nature of her husband’s crimes: she later became one of three Tory MPs suspended from the Commons for a day as punishment for trying to influence a judge who presided over his trial, and also supported his failed appeal in March against his two-year jail term which she said was ‘excessive’.
Her mother, however, feels precisely the opposite: that her son-in-law should have been locked up for at least five years.
Her horror that he has been released already — having served just one year, some of which was at an open prison in Gloucestershire — is palpable.
‘I think it is appalling. I think for him to serve only half of his sentence is a great disrespect to these victims and their whole ordeal,’ she says.
‘He is someone who has abused women — and I feel like he has used his position
