[Red Moon]

'Marc Bannerman beat me': Girlfriend's shocking claim as she leaves him over Cerys

I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here! contestant Cerys Matthews has been warned by her family from getting too close to soap star Marc Bannerman after his girlfriend claimed he viciously beat her.

Viewers of the show have been hooked on the unfolding romance between Bannerman and Welsh pop singer Matthews in recent days.

Unhappily it was Bannerman's less than gallant public displays of affection for her while his girlfriend Sarah Matravers waited for him on the outside that led to his dismissal in a public vote.

Having been ejected from the ITV reality show set in the Australian jungle, Matravers promptly dumped him too, but not before telling the tabloid-buying public of a much darker side to his personality.

Cerys's relatives rallied around her as accusations flew at the weekend about Bannerman's violent past - and after he pledged in a love letter that he would return to Australia to be reunited with her.

Having watched the carnival unfold on screen, Miss Matthews' brother Richard made a public plea to her saying: "Please don't rush this. Things are different in the real world than the jungle."

He added: "I can see Cerys is terrified and lost. She doesn't know what's going on. She has fallen for Marc and is in an incredibly vulnerable place.

"We're all praying she doesn't get hurt again - it's always in the back of our minds that it will send her over the edge. Her divorce is still so raw and hit her hard. It's very difficult to watch her being hurt all over again."

Cerys, a self-confessed former heroin addict, divorced American music producer Seth Riddle last month after a series of desperate attempts to make the marriage work failed.

Richard Matthews told the People: "It's a bit of a shock that this thing with Marc has happened actually. She has been through a terrible time and I don't want her to have another one."

Unknown to Cerys and the other reality TV stars remaining in the contest, Matravers told another Sunday tabloid that Bannerman had viciously beaten her during their tempestuous two-year relationship.

Recalling their fight, Miss Matravers, 33, told the Sunday Mirror: "I was very, very scared. I remember thinking, 'he's a bloke, he shouldn't be doing this to me'. I had bruises where he slapped me and bruises and scuffs on my body."

She said she was so terrified during the alleged assault that she plunged her arm through a window pane, believing it was the only way to stop him beating her.

"I have no idea how long the fight lasted for. There was a bruise on my back and I had 10 stitches to my arm so it was pretty nasty."

Marc called an ambulance and she was taken to hospital where she gave a statement to police, she reportedly said. They arrested Marc and charged him with assaulting his girlfriend, the Sunday Mirror claimed.

However days later, the paper claimed, Sarah dropped the charges, claiming she was too drunk to remember what had happened. Prosecutors decided to go ahead with the case without her - but later dropped the case.

At the time Marc reportedly denied the assault.

Miss Matravers spoke out about the incident - which happened at their home last February - after watching the ITV1 show in disbelief while her 34-year-old lover spent 11 days flirting with former Catatonia singer Cerys, 36.

"I was shouting at him, 'Are you in love with Cerys? Yes or no, yes or no?'

"He couldn't seem to answer. He just said, 'I don't know' and 'Sorry' over and over again. He didn't really make anything clearer to me, I'm absolutely devastated.

"He tried to defend himself saying he didn't do anything 'overly physical' with Cerys. But to see him saying he was in love with her on TV, that's heartbreaking.

"I told him it was over. I said if he can't make a decision, then I'll make a decision for him. That's it. He didn't say much."

Source: Daily Mail