Bargain Hunt star Charles Hanson cleared of abusing wife

28 February 2025, 16:25 | Updated: 28 February 2025, 16:56

Bargain Hunt auctioneer Charles Hanson has been unanimously cleared of abusing his wife Rebecca Hanson.

Hanson, 46, was arrested last June for the alleged assault on his wife Rebecca Hanson.

The TV antiques expert had been accused of assault occasioning actual bodily harm between May 13 and 17 2020, and engaging in controlling or coercive behaviour between May 2015 and June 2023.

He pleaded not guilty to all charges at a hearing in February last year.

Hanson, who is known for appearing on Bargain Hunt, Flog It! and Antiques Road Trip, was charged with five separate offences which were alleged to have taken place between June 2023 and February 2025.

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Police were called to the couple's £1.5million home in June last year following reports of a domestic incident at the residence, located in the village of Quarndon, Derbyshire, in June 2023.

Charles Hanson smiled at his parents and gave a thumbs-up gesture from the dock after the jury foreman returned the not guilty verdicts.

The celebrity auctioneer's parents, who were sitting in the front row of the public gallery, wept and hugged their son after he was discharged from the dock.

Judge Martin Hurst thanked the jurors for their care in considering the case.

He then told Hanson: "You have been found not guilty. That is the end of the case. You will hear no more about it and you are free to go."

Prior to today's verdict, Mrs Hanson told the jury of seven women and five men that their marriage was "generally OK" at the beginning before the violence "escalated".

Mrs Hanson said she was "petrified" when the first incident happened in 2012, around two years after they married, when her husband "went for" her while she was five or six months pregnant with a baby the couple later lost.

She told the court: "Charles had obviously had an operation for testicular cancer and I was pregnant. It's common that when Charles is ill he gets extra irritable and angry."

Mrs Hanson said that during an argument she threw an empty cardboard box for cappuccino sachets which landed on the floor two metres away from him.

She told the jury: "He just went for me."He just ran towards where I was stood in the door frame. I turned around to protect my stomach and my baby. He got me round the throat.

"He's behind me with his arm around my throat, tight, with my head back."It felt like a very long time... I think realistically probably about four, five seconds, but it felt like minutes. I froze. I was absolutely petrified and in shock.

"I completely froze, I was paralysed with fear. I could not believe he was doing it.

"I think he was shocked at what he had done, I could not believe what he had done especially because I was pregnant."