My ex-husband almost killed me - now he might be released from jail

An abusive husband who was jailed for slashing his wife's neck with a knife could be released early from prison under Labour's controversial scheme. 

Former army sergeant Martin Underwood, 49, threatened to kill mother of two Elizabeth Hudson in the kitchen of their family home in Barnsley in April 2021. 

He went on to attack another woman while on police bail by placing a bag over her head during a row while they were having sex.    

Underwood admitted making threats to kill and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, as well as a charge of non-fatal suffocation. He was jailed last February for six years and three months with a judge branding him a 'significant risk'.

'Highly manipulative and dangerous' Underwood was also given two indefinite restraining orders. 

But a legal loophole means he could be set free nine months early, and even be out as early as Christmas this year - much to Ms Hudson's shock and dismay. 

The emotional mother said she has had 'lots of therapy' for post-traumatic stress disorder and has worked 'really hard to get in a better place', but her ex's potential early release has 'derailed that'.

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She told Good Morning Britain she was 'incredibly shocked' when she received a letter 'out of the blue' from the Ministry of Justice to notify her that her abusive ex-husband met the criteria for the scheme. 

'What message does it send to other abusers?' she said. 

'The government talks about violence against women, let's treat it as seriously as terrorism, let's halve the amount of violence against women.

'And then they put policies in place that gives a message that actually it's not really that important. That we don't need to make this number one priority.'

There is an option for Ms Hudson to request that an 'exclusion zone' is put in place for Underwood when he is released, but she says this would then reveal her location to him. 

She added: 'If you've been in an abusive relationship you have walked on eggshells. 

'You've changed your behaviour, and you've felt controlled. Then you have this period of peace, this period of freedom where you can walk around and not look over your shoulder - and that's incredibly precious.

'But you know there is a time frame on that, but for them [the government] to just reduce that so ridiculously is so unbelievably cruel.'

The early release scheme has reduced the proportion of a sentence most offenders must serve behind bars from 50 per cent to 40 per cent.

There are exclusions for domestic abuse cases such as stalking and non-fatal strangulation. 

However, Underwood's sentence was classed as assault instead of domestic abuse.  

An incensed Richard Madeley later quizzed Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood about Ms Hudson's case.

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But she dodged the GMB co-host's questions three times as she repeatedly defended the scheme, saying: 'I had to pull these levers in an emergency manner as soon as I took office as we were on the brink of an absolute disaster.

'By the bank holiday in August we were down to fewer than 100 places left.'

An irked Madeley quoted Charles Dickens as he told the Labour MP the 'law is an ass' as he said: 'As justice minister, as a woman, you cannot be comfortable with this man being released early you can't be?'

Ms Mahmood insisted Ms Hudson 'does matter' and appeared to cause confusion when she extraordinarily suggested that Underwood's offences meant he 'would be excluded under this scheme'.

But she quickly rowed back on her earlier comments and said she would look over the details of the case when she returned to her department later this morning.   

Another 1,100 prisoners are set to be freed today in a second tranche of emergency releases.  

Some of the 1,700 convicts released in September started committing crimes within hours of being freed with the first returned to jail after just 36 hours on the outside.

Ms Mahmood is expected to launch a review of sentencing during the week, which is likely to consider several reforms including whether tougher community sentences would be more effective than short spells in prison.