My dream man turned into a monster who bit my ear off as I ‘smelt of other men’ – it was the scent of OAPs I cared for

CLINKING glasses with her date, Louise Campbell confessed to him that already her feelings were strong.

And James Green, who she had met just two days earlier on the dating app Tinder, said the feeling was mutual.

“He’d swept me off my feet,” Louise admits.

“He was charming and full of compliments and we shared an instant attraction.

“I thought to myself: Yes, I really can see myself falling for him.”

Even as Green leaned across the table to tell her had only recently released from prison, Louise, 39,  admits that despite being wary, she was still charmed by him.

“I was wary but I listened as James told me about the firearms charge he’d been convicted of,” she says.

“‘It wasn’t even a gun, it was just a taser. I didn’t use it either,’ he insisted.

“My mind raced. I was quite overweight at the time and James was a good looking guy. I was flattered by the attention and I agreed to see him again.

“My friends warned me it was a red flag, but he told me he had served his time and he had changed. I believed him.”

Within a month of dating, the UK was plunged into lockdown as COVID hit.

With Green eager to keep their relationship going, Louise invited him to move into her home with her son Sam*, now 18.

“I was desperate for my new romance to succeed but it wasn’t long before the cracks began to show,” she admits.

“James became rude and aggressive after he’d been drinking and taking cocaine.”

It was when Louise overheard Green on the phone to his mum that she told a friend about his behaviour.

“I text my friend to complain,” she says.

“I told her about the way he was shouting at her and how disrespectful he was being to a woman in her 70s.

“I didn’t like the way he spoke to her but when James swiped my phone and found the message I’d sent, he was furious.

“He accused me of slagging him off before slapping me hard across the face and smashing up my phone.”

While she admits she was in shock, Louise says that Green was able to talk her around.

“James made me believe it was my fault, that I shouldn’t have interfered in his relationship with his mum,” she says.

“Stunned, I let it go and prayed it was a one-off. But six weeks later, James cranked the volume on the radio up at 6.30am, after he’d been out all night on a drink and drugs binge.”

Asking Green to turn the music down, he left to stay the night at his mum’s, before she called Louise the following morning persuading her to pick him up.

“Reluctantly, I drove to her bungalow, expecting James to be full of apologies,” she says.

“Instead, he came storming outside and punched me square in the face.

“I asked him what he was doing but then he punched me a second time.”

Witnessing the attack, his mum called the police and Green was given a 30-week jail sentence for ABH.

“It should have been the end, but James wasn’t going to let me go that easily,” Louise says.

Life became permanently walking on eggshells – terrified of James’s outbursts.

Louise Campbell

“He pleaded with me on the phone from prison telling me the drugs had driven him to the attack.

“He told me he would get clean and attend an online rehab course to make it up to me.

“I couldn’t take in what was happening to me. One minute, James was loving and caring, the next he was a monster.

“When things were good with James, they were amazing and I wanted to believe he’d changed. So on his release, he moved back into my place and I felt positive about the future.

“He said all the right things and I genuinely believed he was committed to rehab and getting clean.”

But it wasn’t long before James went back to his old ways when a year later he accused Louise of cheating on him.

“James had smelt men’s aftershave on me and assumed I’d been with another fella,” she explains.

“But it was just the deodorant I applied to elderly male patients at the nursing home where I was deputy manager.

“James didn’t listen though as he launched his fist at my face, splitting my lip. There was blood everywhere and I required plastic surgery at hospital.”

A ‘paranoid rage’

The attack left Louise scarred for life but she says Green convinced not to press charges, asking her to lie to doctors about ‘falling over.’

“By now, I was a shell of the woman I’d once been. I was so used to James’s physical and emotional abuse, I felt under his control,” Louise says.

“My world got even smaller when I lost my job at the nursing home. 

“James’s abuse was impacting on my ability to perform at work, and now I was at home with him 24/7 at his mercy.

“Life became permanently walking on eggshells – terrified of James’s outbursts, worrying every time he had a drink he’d fly into a paranoid rage.”

Six months later, as Louise was heading to bed when she noticed Green’s phone lighting up with messages.

‘I begged him to stop’

“It was 11pm and I’d come downstairs to make myself a drink and let my dogs out into the garden, when his mobile began flashing,” she says.

“I picked up his phone and asked who was texting him. 

“James regularly used to go through my phone but when I looked at his, I knew instantly it was a mistake.

“Suddenly, he launched himself at me, grabbing a fistful of my hair as we tumbled onto the sofa and landed on the living room floor.

“I begged him to stop, cowering underneath him in the foetal position. I protected my face with my hands as I saw James looming over me, his face full of anger and his mouth snarling open.

“When he bit into my ear, pain seared through me and my dogs started fighting because of the commotion.”

As Green stood to wrestle the dogs apart, Louise seized her chance to flee, running upstairs and locking herself in the bathroom.

“My heart pounded in my chest as I silently dialled 999, desperate for help,” she says.

I went downstairs to let them in and that’s when I saw a bloody blob on the living room floor.

Louise Campbell

“ I knew the bathroom door wouldn’t keep him out for long, so relief flooded through me when I heard James steal my car off the drive and speed off.”

The police arrived at Louise’s home, shortly after.

“I went downstairs to let them in and that’s when I saw a bloody blob on the living room floor,” she recalls.

“It was my ear. James had bitten it clean off.”

Desperate to save it, Louise put it in a bag of ice before heading to hospital escorted by the police officers.

The following morning she underwent surgery to reattach it. Part of the ear had gone necrotic and died, but surgeons were able to save most of it.

Meanwhile, Green was arrested and remanded in custody. It was a year before Louise’s case got to court but in September 2023, Green was found guilty and convicted of causing GBH with intent.

The 36-year-old was sentenced to six years and three months in jail and Louise was granted a seven-year restraining order.

She says: “As far as I’m concerned, they should have thrown away the key. James tried to break me but I broke the cycle of abuse and now I’m finally free.

“It’s a relief. But I’ll never forget that night.”

*Sam’s name has been changed