My ex plotted to have me murdered throughout custody battle – I’ve needed to settle for I am going to by no means be freed from her due to her relationship with our daughter

A person whose ex-wife tried to have him killed in a custody row over their daughter says he has come to phrases with the actual fact she will probably be in his life without end, as she’s set to be launched from jail subsequent yr.

Rob Parkes’s ex, Victoria Breeden, with whom he shares a teenage woman, Grace, is at present serving a nine-and-a-half yr sentence after she was discovered responsible of soliciting his homicide.

Because the mom, from Littleport, Cambridgeshire, is ready to be launched subsequent yr after serving half her sentence, Rob has instructed FEMAIL he is doing nicely and has made peace with the truth that there will probably be ‘no definitive closure’ for him as he continues to lift their daughter. 

Three years on from her sentencing, Rob, who desires to maintain the place he is residing nowadays personal, has written a e book about his ordeal, Married to the Black Widow as a approach of serving to to course of his trauma – whereas additionally explaining it to Grace.

‘It started as a letter to my daughter,’ he defined. ‘I needed to inform her, that is our story. That is your story.’

Rob Parkes (pictured together with his new spouse Jane) has written a memoir about being married to the ‘black widow’ Victoria Breeden, who was sentenced to nine-and-a-half years in jail for plotting to have him killed

In 2020, Victoria Breeden was discovered responsible of making an attempt to have Rob killed by persuading three completely different males to homicide him.

The courtroom heard Breeden’s dedication to hold out the assaults was borne out of a need to get revenge on Rob after he gained custody of their teenage daughter following the breakdown of their marriage. She supplied some males as much as £5,000 to kill him.

Rob and Breeden had met at Teeside College in 2000 and married in 2004.

Their marriage broke down between 2006 and 2008 and in 2014 Mr Parkes gained custody of Grace.

Victoria Breeden (pictured) supplied males cash to kill her ex husband after he gained custody of their daughter Grace

Breeden (pictured being interviewed by police) was jailed for nine-and-a-half years

Following the break up, Rob was topic to a marketing campaign of intimidation and harassment from Breeden and males she was courting.

On New Yr’s Day in 2014, the police arrived at Rob’s door after being alerted by a 999 name relating to a automobile fireplace on the home. They believed the decision had come from Rob, however it was a hoax.

Nevertheless, the next morning within the early hours, Rob was woken up by the sound of fireside and realised his Audi actually was alight – with the blaze shattering the entrance home windows of the home and forcing him, Grace, and Rob’s new spouse Jane, to flee for his or her lives. 

It later emerged that Breeden’s new husband Wayne Woods was the perpetrator and he was jailed for arson.

Rob instructed FEMAIL that, for years after the break up and throughout the bitter custody battle wherein he fought tooth and nail in household courts for entry to his daughter, he needed to transfer home a number of instances.

However issues got here to a head when he learnt that Breeden had tried to persuade a person to kill Rob, after he was referred to as right into a police station and performed an audio recording of Breeden plotting with Graham Wall (who gave cops the recording).

Rob’s story was coated in a two-part particular of 24 Hours in Police Custody: Black Widow, wherein the second he heard the recording for the primary time was captured on tape.

When the episode first aired in 2021, viewers described Rob as calm and picked up as he listened to his ex-wife plotting his homicide. Talking a number of years later, Rob revealed he regarded calm as a result of he was already planning to maintain his household secure.

‘I can let you know precisely what I used to be pondering,’ he stated. ‘This was not the primary time [Breeden had tried to harm him]. I used to be pondering, ‘I will have to maneuver home, I will have to maneuver my child’s faculty once more, an enormous lengthy listing of issues.

‘[Breeden] had managed to achieve out and affect our lives once more. It was a glance of shock. My mind was desperately making an attempt to grasp what to do subsequent.’

Since Breeden was sentenced, Rob and Grace have been by way of counselling to course of what occurred – though he admits it took him time to understand that was what he wanted.

‘For a very long time I refused to contemplate that I wanted remedy or any type of help, which goes a protracted strategy to understanding the issues with males’s psychological well being,’ he stated.

By means of counselling and writing the e book, Rob has additionally come to phrases with the truth that he was topic to emotional abuse by Breeden – which has helped him perceive the mindset of among the males she manipulated after him.

‘One of many greatest issues is no person noticed me,’ he stated. ‘My character had been subsumed into Victoria’s.’

Wayne Woods, an ex-soldier whom Breeden had married after Rob, was jailed for arson after being discovered responsible of inflicting the automobile fireplace outdoors Rob and Jane’s home – however fairly than holding anger in direction of him, Rob stated he desires Wayne to obtain help.

‘It is too simple to say, ‘that is a foul man’. Wayne’s not a foul man,’ Rob stated. ‘He did what he thought was the proper factor to do – however that was [Breeden], not Wayne.

‘I do not forgive him. He did the fallacious factor and put our lives in peril and I used to be a sufferer for certain – however he was a sufferer too.’ 

The important thing lesson Rob desires his daughter to study from the trauma of the previous few years is that ‘life is contradictory’ and human beings are complicated.

In his e book, Rob writes about seeing Breeden seem by way of video hyperlink at Chelmsford Crown Court docket because the jury discovered her responsible of asking for homicide.

He describes observing Breeden’s ‘cute sideways smile’ and remembering the scent of her fragrance as he noticed her seem on the display screen, coupled with ‘the stabbing, electrical shock of worry’ that got here with seeing her after she had already inflicted a lot hurt upon him.

Talking about his conflicting emotions and the way he explains them to Grace, Rob stated: ‘There are constructive and detrimental elements to all people. 

‘I would like to have the ability to say [to Grace]: ‘There is a cause why we had been collectively within the first place and there are the reason why we’re not anymore.

‘That description [in the book] was 100% correct. I did see [Breeden] and I used to be remembering among the instances which we had – a few of which had been nice. 

‘However that overwhelmingly was taken over by all the opposite recollections that got here flooding again.’

As Breeden appears to be like set to be launched from jail subsequent yr, Rob has revealed he has ready as greatest he can.

‘I am not ready to run away anymore,’ he stated. ‘I am not going to look over my shoulder.

‘I’ve received a stay to stay and my daughter’s received a life to stay, however I settle for that [Breeden] goes to be in our lives for a very long time to come back.’

Married to the Black Widow, revealed by Seven Dials, is available for purchase from immediately