SHE was forced to clean while naked, made to eat dog food, whipped with a belt and beaten with a rolling pin - but she endured it all for the sake of the children she cared for.

The York nanny who was forced to work as a naked slave, has spoken of the unimaginable ordeal she suffered at the hands of her own sister-in-law - and explained why she endure it for so long without speaking out.

The Press told on Saturday how Antonia Pearson-Gaballonie, 35, of New Lane, Holgate, York, was jailed for inflicting years of abuse on Veronica Sandeman, 26, who was nanny to her six children.

Veronica said she felt too close to the children to leave when her brother Stephen's marriage to Pearson-Gaballonie broke down.

"I had bonded so much with the kids," she said. "I wanted to protect them from the upheaval of the split-up."

But three months later the violence began.

Veronica said: "At first she was slapping and punching me, maybe losing her temper once a week. But within a year, I was taking beatings three times a week, then every day. I was too scared to hit back."

Then Pearson-Gaballonie started beating her with weapons, including a studded leather belt.

"Her favourite was one of those old- fashioned wooden rolling pins. She split my face open one day, but wouldn't let me see a doctor," Veronica said.

"The obvious question people ask is why didn't I walk out. The truth is I didn't think anyone would believe me.

"My self-esteem hit rock bottom, I began believing I was actually causing Toni to behave this way and it was my fault.

"And I couldn't just walk out and leave the children with this monster. All the attacks were when they went to bed and I thought that if I wasn't there, I feared she would start attacking them instead," she told a Sunday newspaper.

Then in 2004 Pearson-Gaballonie met nightclub bouncer Neil Pearson and Veronica's ordeal worsened.

She said: "She made me walk round naked, cleaning and scrubbing in just a pair of old black shoes.

"I was a prisoner in the house all day - naked, even in front of Neil.

"He's a big guy, but he didn't say a thing - I think he was scared of her too."

Pearson-Gaballonie would cook dog biscuits and dog meat in curry sauce and force Veronica to eat it.

"I would be sick as she was making me eat it, but she just laughed," she said. But on Christmas Day the abuse got worse.

Veronica said: "She was swearing and screaming as she dragged me into her bedroom, knocked me to the floor and made me strip naked.

"She told Neil to pin my arms to the floor, got a pair of scissors and started cutting off chunks of my hair.

"There was blood streaming down my face and neck where she'd cut me with the scissors. She pulled me into the kitchen and started beating me with the rolling pin and leather belt before holding a bread knife to my throat. She knocked me to the floor and kept banging my head off the tiles."

A few days later Veronica was sent out - naked - to clean the freezing cold garage, but she discovered a bag of Neil's old clothes.

She put them on and ran to a neighbour who called the police, and for the first time her brother discovered what had happened.

Veronica said: "He was speechless with rage. At first, he couldn't understand why I never told him so he could stop it. I tried to explain that I was in such a dark place I thought even my own family wouldn't believe me."

Veronica admits that giving evidence was an ordeal, but she's glad she did it.

"That evil woman is mentally unbalanced and should be locked up for the rest of her life," she said.

Veronica is now rebuilding her life in Scotland, where she is studying art at college, she told the Sunday Mirror. She has a partner and gave birth to her first child three months ago.

Pearson-Gaballonie was found guilty at York Crown Court on Friday of assault, false imprisonment and threats to kill, and sent straight to jail. Pearson was found guilty of aiding and abetting an assault and granted bail.