Reality TV Star Cleared of Domestic Violence Charges: Update on ‘Bargain Hunt’ Auctioneer Charles Hanson

Television personality Charles Hanson has been unanimously acquitted of all domestic abuse allegations after a three-week trial at Derby Crown Court in England.

The 46-year-old Bargain Hunt and Antiques Road Trip fixture was exonerated Friday when a jury returned not guilty verdicts on all charges related to alleged misconduct toward his wife Rebecca Hanson, BBC reports.

Jurors deliberated approximately four and a half hours before clearing the auctioneer of two assault accusations from incidents allegedly occurring in 2015 and 2023, plus a separate charge of controlling and coercive behavior spanning 2015 to 2023.

“I’m delighted that after a year and a half the truth has finally come out,” Hanson told reporters outside the courthouse. “I can finally live my life again. I feel this burden has finally been lifted,” The Independent writes.

The prosecution had characterized certain WhatsApp communications as essentially “a set of confessions” to the charges, including messages where Hanson promised to never again “lay a finger” on his wife, according to prosecutor Stephen Kemp’s closing arguments.

During the trial, Rebecca Hanson, 41, testified she was left “paralysed with fear” when her husband allegedly “went for” her while five or six months pregnant with a child she later lost, The Independent notes. She further claimed this 2012 incident initiated escalating violence throughout their marriage, including allegations he threatened to burn her with embers, repeatedly grabbed her, imprisoned her in a hotel room, and pushed her during various confrontations over the subsequent decade.

Hanson rejected these accusations, explaining to jurors that the supposed headlock was merely a hug. He portrayed himself as “almost a slave” to his wife, who he claimed left him “a beaten and broken man” through her controlling behavior.

Defense counsel Sasha Wass KC argued that Rebecca Hanson “was not controlled in any sense of the word” and “felt resentful and hard done by” regarding her husband’s professional commitments before their marriage “imploded” in 2023.

“The reality, I suggest, is that Rebecca Hanson is none of those things and she has used this court, a criminal court, as an extension of her divorce battle,” Wass told jurors, emphasizing that “the entirety of the case rests on the testimony of Rebecca Hanson. There is nothing else.”

Following the verdict announcement, Hanson displayed visible relief, smiling at his parents and offering a thumbs-up gesture from the dock. His parents, seated in the public gallery’s front row, shed tears and embraced their son after his discharge.

“[The last 18 months] have been extremely upsetting,” Hanson reflected outside court. “I’ve missed my children and quite simply I can now get back to my life, and I relish that.”

Judge Martin Hurst thanked jurors for their careful consideration before addressing the defendant: “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.”

Hanson expressed gratitude for his support network throughout the ordeal. “I’ve experienced a long time of upset and I always believed in justice, and here we are today, the sun is shining and I can start my life again,” he stated.

“[The trial has] been very impactful and I’m very lucky that my parents have stood by me from start to finish. Without my family it would have been a very testing time,” he added.

“To anyone who knows me, who’s believed in me, who’s supported me, who’s messaged me, to everybody out there – thank you,” Hanson concluded, as the familiar television personality now prepares to resume both his personal and professional life after what he described as a “tormentuous time.”