Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor:  Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report

AsiaWire / Yang Yan

A brave domestic violence survivor has shared harrowing footage of the moment her abusive husband dragged her from a chair while repeatedly punching and slapping her.

When Yang Yan, 40, posted the distressing scenes to social media at the end of last month, she said she would “no longer stay silent”, claiming she had been subjected to violence by her estranged husband, Luo Chengxiang, for the past 16 years.

However, the husband – now serving a week-long jail term for assault – claims the incident was a “one-off”.

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Shocking CCTV images shared with Asia Wire shows Ms Yang standing behind a desk in their office when her estranged spouse Mr Luo rushes in the front door and makes his way towards her on 20th March.

Mr Luo begins punching his wife, who resists by pushing him away with her leg, the footage from the county of Cangxi in Sichuan Province in south-western China shows.

In the distressing clip, Mr Luo drags Ms Yang from her office chair, pulling her along the floor, before hitting her over the head with a plastic chair and throwing her against the frame of a glass door.

The video ends with Ms Yang pinned against a wall and the floor by her husband, while a young woman who witnesses the incident inside the office does not intervene.

According to Ms Yang, who was hospitalised after the altercation, the incident happened after she noticed her husband withdrawing money from their joint business account, which she then had frozen to stop the transactions.

When her husband tried unsuccessfully to withdraw money again, he retaliated by attacking her, Ms Yang claimed in an online post.

The couple, who have a teenage son, have been locked in an ongoing divorce suit for many months, with neither side able to agree on the issue of how to split assets, Ms Yang said.

She told Asia Wire that her husband had been jailed for seven days for assault on 2nd April, a verdict later confirmed by local authorities in Cangxi County.

Ms Yang is not believed to have been able to provide evidence of alleged historical abuse from the past years.

In an interview given to local media, Mr Luo denied claims he had abused his wife over the last 16 years, calling the office incident a “one-off”.

He said: “There is no evidence to support anything she says.

“We’ve slept in separate rooms for the last six years. We’ve had very little contact and don’t talk to each other at home.”

Ms Yang said she is waiting for a local court to resume hearings for their dirovce suit.

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