A BARGAIN Hunt star has been cleared of abusing his wife after he was accused of putting her in a headlock while she was pregnant.
Charles Hanson, 45, denied assaulting his wife Rebecca every six months and coercively controlling her over a ten-year period.
He has now been unanimously found not guilty of a string of charges at Derby Crown Court.
Hanson gave a thumbs-up from the dock as the verdicts were delivered and hugged his sobbing mum.
Speaking outside court, he said: “I’m delighted that after a year and a half the truth has finally come out.
“I can finally live my life again. I feel this burden has finally been lifted.
“It has been a tormentuous time and all I want now is to readjust to what has been such an ordeal.
“I am so relieved that this is all over.”
Jurors heard how Hanson, who also appears on Flog It! and Antiques Road Trip, married wife Rebecca in 2010 – two years after they first met.
Stephen Kemp, prosecuting, said the marriage “started off happily” but the auctioneer began “using violence against his wife”.
This pattern of violence continued every six months over the “next ten years or so”, it was said.
Rebecca told the court she was left “paralysed with fear” after one alleged attack in the kitchen of their home in 2012 while she was pregnant.
She said she had thrown a “tiny” box on the floor that landed around two inches in front of him when Hanson “just went for me”.
Rebecca also told the jury there were around 14 or 15″ different incidents involving arguments or violence during their marriage.
Rebecca said there was another occasion in May 2021 when her husband “threatened to put burning embers from the fire” on her.
But after he was arrested for the alleged headlock incident, Hanson told police he was being “warm and lovely” and accused his wife of being a “fantasist”.
He continued to deny he had attacked Rebecca while giving evidence and claimed: “It was just a hug”.
Hanson also told the court about another alleged row where he was accused of throwing a phone at his wife.
The TV expert said: “Rebecca was shouting ‘where’s the phone, where’s the landline phone bring it in, it doesn’t belong here’.
“I walked through the house and said ‘love, here’s the phone and very gently, like tossing an apple or orange, said ‘catch’.
“My wife put her hands out like a cup to catch it and it went through her hands and it fell to the floor. It didn’t smash.”
Hanson also told the court he was “almost a slave” to his wife, who left him “a beaten and broken man” by controlling him and making him subservient to her.
He denied two counts of assault causing actual bodily harm, two of assault by beating and one of controlling and coercive behaviour.
His career started in the ceramics and glass department at Christie’s in 1999.
Hanson first appeared on Bargain Hunt in 2002 and became the youngest expert on the team aged 25.
