IT was by coincidence that Natalie and Helen realised they had both suffered traumatic domestic violence at the hands of York car dealer Keith Turner.

The women, who had both been in relationships with Turner, but broken up with him after suffering months of frightening abuse, were both on a forum for the victims of domestic violence when Helen posted an email she had received from Turner, apologising for his behaviour.

When Natalie received the same email the following day she realised her ex-boyfriend must have started another abusive relationship with Helen soon after they had split up.

The two arranged to meet – and have since become best friends – overcoming their fear and going to the police over the abuse.

Last week, Turner, of Green Lane in Acomb, was jailed for 16 months after pleading guilty to two counts of causing a person to fear violence through harrassment.

Hull Crown Court heard how he physically and mentally abused the two women in a lengthy series of humiliating and frightening incidents including spitting in their faces, strewing one victim’s shredded clothes in the road and posting a fictional profile on an adult website so that men turned up at one victim’s home, expecting sexual favours.

Turner, 43, the owner of VW Relics Ltd in Elvington, also smashed one of the victim’s laptops and destroyed both of their phones.

Photographs taken by Natalie of her injuries, the emails he had sent them and the abuse he had posted on the internet were used in evidence against him.

Recalling the moment she realised Turner had abused another woman, Natalie, 44, who lives in East Yorkshire, said it was “the most upsetting part” of her ordeal.

“I was hysterical. It was terrible. I thought if I had been to the police he would not have been able to do it to someone else which he had done rapidly. How could anybody foresee two women joining this forum and their former partner being the same man? People could be on there from anywhere in the world. I believe it was fate.”

Both women said they were horrified to find themselves in such abusive relationships but were manipulated by Turner’s charismatic apologies and felt they had become brainwashed.

Natalie, who was with Turner for ten months from November 2010 to August 2011, said: “He combined the best time anybody has ever shown me with the most awful times. I spent a lot of time thinking of how I was going to get away from him. He had a key to my house and he knew where I worked and said the only way I would get rid of him was a restraining order.

“He had this weird emotional hold over me. I still felt he had this huge grip on me that I could not get out of even when we were no longer together.”

It was when the two women met and talked about their experiences for hours they realised they had to do something.

Helen, 46, of York, who was with Turner for two months from September 2011, said a positive that had come from what happened was that she had found such a close friend. “Without this situation I would not have met Natalie. We are best friends now, we have such a strong bond because of the trauma we have gone through.”

• The womens’ names have been changed to protect their identities.

To help other victims, Helen and Natalie compiled this list of warning signs of domestic violence:

• Speaking disrespectfully about their former

partners inappropriately early in your relationship • Being disrespectful to you, using bad language

• Becoming very intense early in relationship, even speaking of living together and marriage

• Disliking your friends and family and alienating you from them. They become possessive and want to spend every spare minute with you

• Taking away your independence and disguising it as caring for you. Saying they behave that way because they love you so much it makes them insecure

• Being controlling about your clothes

• Becoming unnaturally jealous over everyday things - such as hanging your underwear on the washing line or speaking to your neighbours or anyone of the opposite sex

• Becoming intimidating when angry and changing mood abruptly and frequently

HELEN and Natalie’s advice to people who may be in a violent relationship

• Trust your perceptions of how you are being treated

• Don’t be afraid to Google a new partner

• Consider using Claire’s Law to ask the police if they have a history of domestic violence – however, if you feel that strongly you have probably answered your own question

• Read the book Why Does He Do That? by Lundy Bancroft

• Visit womensaid.org.uk, which can be viewed without leaving any trace on your computer and you can talk to other women anonymously.