THE former wife of a double murderer has described how he held a gun to her head and played Russian roulette.

Kim Davis, 51, from Tiptree, described the nightmare attack in which convicted killer David Oakes loaded a gun with one bullet and spun the barrel.

She wet herself as she heard the empty chambers click.

Kim was married to Oakes for 18 years and endured beatings, emotional abuse, knifepoint threats and having to watch her son get attacked.

She sat in court as Oakes was sentenced to life in jail for the murder of his ex-partner Christine Chambers and their daughter Shania, two.

Kim met him when she was a teenager working at a chicken factory, in Witham, in the Eighties. She said: “He was my first boyfriend and I thought he was a bit boisterous and a bit of a Jack the lad, who wanted everything his own way.

“At the time I thought it was because he was an only child.

“But he got worse and worse. He threatened me with my family.

“If I said anything, he said he would kill me and my son and my family.

“I thought it must be me. I thought what am I doing wrong.

“No one knew about it. I was afraid to tell anyone.”

The pair lived in Foxglove Close, Witham, with their son Daniel.

She said: “He used to beat my son about and threatened to kill him.

“One particular time he smacked Daniel so hard with a pool cue, as he was standing there holding a knife to my throat and I had to watch it. I didn’t know what to do.”

Kim, who has re-married, only once dared to phone the police about the abuse and spoke anonymously of what was happening. She claims she was told until something bad happened it was just a domestic row.

Oakes finally left her for another woman, but kept Kim in his clutches by letting himself into her house and making demands.

She was made to feel like she had to keep doing as he asked, such as attending barbecues at his caravan in Steeple Bay, otherwise he would take it out on their son.While at the site she had tried to warn Miss Chambers.

Kim said: “We were going to play bingo and I sensed something, that he was doing the same thing to her. I can’t remember what was actually said but I told her to get out while you can. He turned round and looked and I said to stop talking.”

Hearing details of the horrific murder has brought the memories flooding back for Kim and led to her having nightmares. She sat through the trial at Chelmsford Crown Court with her son Daniel and described how sickened she was that Oakes did not have to be in the dock to hear his punishment.

She said: “I said to Daniel it could have been me and him, we are the lucky ones that are still alive to tell the story.”