A woman has spoken of her horror at discovering her husband had been secretly raping her while she slept and filming the attacks.

Sarah Tetley, from Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, fought through panic attacks and depression to see her now-ex partner Charlie Tetley put behind bars after the terrifying assaults which took place in the bedroom they shared, the Daily Mail reports today.

After getting married and having a daughter, the husband’s behaviour towards his wife changed. Sarah feared her husband was having an affair behind her back, but the truth was far worse – he had been raping her while she slept at night and recording the assaults.

She made the discovery one morning when she woke up to find Charlie attacking her. As well as raping his wife, Charlie would also film himself molesting her with various household objects. 

She told This Morning (TV show): ‘At the time I thought, I'll just pretend I'm still asleep and see what's going on. ‘He stopped pretty quickly and I left the bedroom and went downstairs and sat up watching some rubbish on telly.’

After her husband left for work, she fled to her neighbour’s house. The neighbour convinced Sarah to report her story to the police and officers came over immediately to take more details.

The police confiscated Charlie’s laptop, video recorder and Xbox. While helping officers with their search, Sarah discovered seven external hard drives stashed under a piece of furniture in their bedroom and also handed those over to be examined.

After accessing the hard drives and computer, Leicestershire police found shocking images of hardcore pornography. She went with the officers to make an official statement at the local station and the following day they arrested Charlie and charged him with three counts of rape and two counts of assault by penetration.

Sarah was asked to watch a few of the 300 recordings that Charlie had amassed over the years of him molesting her. She told This Morning that she was horrified by what she saw in the footage.

She said: ‘A couple of the videos I watched you couldn't hear me be breathing and I didn't really appear to be moving at all. I did look like I was dead in some of them.”

Although the videos, which dated from January 2011 to December 2012, were sickening to watch, they were what the police needed to prove that Charlie was guilty of raping his wife. On 28 March, 2014, Charlie attended Leicester Crown Court and pleaded guilty to five counts of rape, attempted rape, eight counts of assault by penetration, three of sexual assault and ten of making indecent images of children.He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Sarah has divorced Charlie and is now in a loving relationship with the neighbour who supported her after the attack and encouraged her to call the police.