'I thought he was going to kill me': Walsall balcony fall victim relives horror
'I really thought that he was going to kill me. I became terrified of the man that I loved." Kayli Hill says she is lucky to be alive after plummeting from a third floor balcony following a relentless beating from her former lover.
Her life has been ripped apart by the horrific physical injuries that have left her with little independence.
The emotional scars left at the hands of a man who started off as a caring partner and turned into what Kayli calls a 'sadistic monster' are less evident, but also painful. She still suffers terrifying flashbacks.
The 28-year-old was left with a fractured back, and shattered pelvis, wrist and ribs and was almost blinded when she climbed over the balcony of her flat in Wood House, Little London in a bid to escape her partner.
Instead of finding safety, she plummeted to the ground.
Thug Michael Riggon, aged 53, attacked his girlfriend of seven months with an ornament they'd received as a housewarming gift after she caught him with another woman in the flat they shared in Walsall.
Riggon was jailed for three years last month after admitting grievous bodily harm.
But Kayli, whose injuries are so severe she still has to wear a body brace every day, eight months on, has bravely chosen to speak out about the abuse she suffered in an attempt to help other women in similar circumstances.
Kayli says: "When we first got together, I never thought he could be capable of something like this.
"We had been together for seven months, but I'd known him for years before we became a couple.
"He became a sadistic monster. When we first got together, we would do everything together, we would go out with our friends, he would look after me if I had an epileptic seizure, but after a few months, after he'd had a drink, he would fling me about the flat.
"When I got together with Michael I knew that he had other convictions for violence against women, but I thought I could make him change. Now I kow differently."
On February 23, Kayli came home to find Michael with another woman in the flat.
Kayli says: "He just flipped out and switched. He grabbed an ornament – a figurine of a woman – we had on display on the coffee table and just started beating me with it.
"My mum had bought it for us as a housewarming present when we moved in together, but now he was beating me over the head with it.
"I can still feel the blows raining down on me; I have flashbacks. I kept thinking, if I don't get away, I'm going to die. I could feel the blood running down my head. He said I was going to die."
Wolverhampton Crown Court heard earlier this month that after beating Kayli with the ornament, Riggon threw it through the window leading the the balcony before going into the kitchen to pick up a knife.
Kayli says: "I knew if I ran for the front door, he would have caught up with me and stabbed me, so I jumped through the broken window onto the balcony.
"I was trapped, he came back out with the knife so I climbed over the corner of the balcony. He said: 'If you want to jump, jump', and I said: 'I don't want to'.
"I was hanging on with my arms and I could see his legs through the gap in the railings. I screamed at him to pull me back up because I was slipping, and he told me to grab his leg.
"As I moved my hand to grab his leg, he stepped backwards and I felt myself fall.
"I just closed my eyes and the last thing I remember is hitting the other balconies on the way down."
Kayli was in a coma in Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth hospital for almost two weeks, but, remarkably, survived her injuries.
She spent four weeks in intensive care before being allowed home to live with her mum, and now has to have a full time carer.
Kayli's injuries are still stopping her from doing day to day activities; she can't even stand up for anything more than half an hour.
She had to have eight stitches in her head and suffered three vertebrae breaks in her back, four broken ribs and a fractured hip and pelvis.
She still has to wear a back brace every day because the breaks in her back haven't yet healed.
Kayli is still awaiting surgery to repair the break to her wrist. She has to be lowered in and out of the bath in a chair because she can't lie down, or use her wrist.
At a trial in October, a charge of attemped murder was dropped against Riggon after he admitted grievous bodily harm.
During sentencing, the court heard that Riggon had 129 previous convictions, seven of which were violent crimes against women.
Addressing Riggon before jailing him, Judge James Burbidge said: "There was an argument between you, she sought to leave and you didn't want her to.
"There was an explosion of violence from you, sustained violence, you sadly reverted to type.
"You grabbed her lips and pulled them, saying she had kissed other men. You then proceeded to hit her with a sizeable and robust ornament, which caused a significant laceration to her head.
"She was that scared that she felt compelled to get onto the balcony."
He was eventually jailed for three years and landed a restraining order banning direct contact with Kayli.
Kayli is now hoping to raise money to set up her own group to help other victims of domestic violence, in the hope people can avoid getting into abusive relationships, or can at least find the courage to speak out.
She says: "If people are coming out of abusive relationships I want them to have a safe place they can go to so they know they have someone there for them.
"I really think this will help people get their lives back on track after going through such a traumatic time in their lives."
