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'My evil ex scalped me- to make me ugly'

When Becky Minto refused to take back her jealous ex-boyfriend, he took sickening revenge – by hacking off her beautiful long hair.

The single mum thought Ryland Halliday would kill her in front of her three-year-old daughter Lily when he lunged at her with a pair of scissors. And Lily was so heartbroken, she tried to glue her mum’s hair back on.

“I thought Lily was going to witness my murder that night. She still has nightmares about it six months on,” says Becky, 21. “Ryland did it to make me ugly to other men. I loved my long hair, but he chopped it all off. I hate him for it.”

He told me: 'You look like a slut'

Becky first met Halliday, a carpenter, in February 2005. They began dating two years later, and he moved into her home. But eight months later, she split up with him after he tried to stop her partying.

“I was holding down two jobs – as a sales rep and a wedding planner – to pay for a nice life for us, so when I got a rare night off I planned a night out,” says Becky. “One of my friends curled my hair, and I put on some hot pants with leggings. But when Ryland saw me, he sneered: ‘You’re not going out like that. You look like a slut.’ I was really upset and threw him out.”

Halliday begged Becky to take him back. She refused, but they kept in touch. Two months later, in September 2007, she invited him to her home in Ashford, Kent, to celebrate his 22nd birthday.

'He lunged at me with scissors'

“He seemed drunk when he arrived,” she says. “He went to the kitchen and I sat with Lily watching TV. When he came back, I saw a flash of what looked like a knife. Then he lunged at me, calling me a slag and accusing me of sleeping around, although I hadn’t been with anyone since we’d split up.

“It wasn’t a knife – it was scissors. He grabbed clumps of hair and chopped it off.”

Becky screamed at Lily to run to safety, but the terrified toddler stayed with her mum, sobbing. “She even jumped on Ryland as he punched me,” says Becky. “He then ran off. As I lay on the floor, Lily tried to glue my hair on with a Pritt Stick.”

Becky was covered in cuts and bruises and the hair around her temples was less than an inch long, a patch on the crown was all but scalped, and only a few strands were left on the back of her head.

“I felt so self-conscious after that,” she says. “I wore a hat every day for two weeks.”

'I'm still scared of him'

Halliday was arrested and charged with actual bodily harm, which he admitted in court. He was given a nine-month suspended jail sentence, told to pay Becky £1,000 compensation and ordered
to do 250 hours’ community service.

“I’m still scared of him,” says Becky. “I saw him in the street a few weeks ago. He’s sick – but at least my hair will grow back eventually.”

Words by Emma Shankland