Copyright walesonline
A millionaire property developer revealed he was left homeless and his life in ruins following what he describes as an "abusive" marriage to a celebrated war widow. Adam Plumb, once a successful businessman, has released a series of videos documenting what he calls the "vile" behaviour of his estranged wife, Christina Schmid. Adam says he believed he had found his ideal partner when he fell in love with the high-profile war pension campaigner. Schmid rose to national prominence after the death of her husband, an Army bomb disposal expert who was killed while defusing a Taliban device in Afghanistan. She became a leading voice for war widows, meeting royalty and senior politicians as part of her advocacy work. Adam says he initially felt protective of Schmid because of what she had endured, but that the relationship soon descended into a "nightmare" of emotional and physical abuse. He said the turmoil left him bankrupt and evicted from their £1.5 million dream home. In December last year, Schmid was convicted of assaulting Adam, by beating. The judge described her as "being the aggressor all along" and accused her of waging a "relentless smear campaign" against Adam. Adam has now released a series of shocking photos and videos of the incident, that he says shows the abuse, violence and manipulation that characterised their marriage. Schmid's reputation suffered a major blow, when she was sentenced to a 12-week suspended sentence for hitting, kicking and biting Adam at their home. Adam, who is now finalising his divorce from Schmid, said after the case he wanted to share the footage to show what she was "really like" behind closed doors. He said: "She not only fooled me, but she fooled the nation." Don’t miss a court report by signing up to our crime newsletter here The videos, which were also shown in court, show Schmid poking and grabbing Adam, shouting in a "booze-fuelled rage." She is then seen cutting her nose with her own nail and blowing the blood into Adam's t-shirt while making a false accusation he had attacked her. During the incident, which was filmed on September 17 2023, Adam described Schmid as "Attacking me, hitting me in the balls, kicking me and biting me in the middle of my back." On the footage, Adam can be heard saying "Get off me - you are a disgusting woman." Later in the video Adam tells her: "You f*cking bit me. You f*cking bitch. You horrible woman." Pictures have also been released by Adam showing a range of bite marks, bruises and scratches from other incidents of 'abuse' also referred to in court. However, speaking about the incident leading to her conviction, that he described as his "wake up call", Adam, 44, of Newton Abbot, Devon, said: "She was kicking and scratching me in bed and poking her nails into my back. I tried to escape to the walk-in-wardrobe and she came in and cuts her own nose with her fingernail and blows it in my t-shirt. "She accuses me of biting her, but just keeps hitting, scratching and then bites me in the back." Adam said his daughter Elle, who is now 19, then called the police but Schmid continued to hit and scratch him. When police arrive, she then accused him of assault. He said: "It is horrible. It is just vile behaviour. I could not get her away from me and was trapped in the corner. It was relentless - like a dog coming at you and you can not get them off. "I managed to get into the bedroom but Christina was screaming that her hand was trapped in the door, it wasn't but I didn't know that until afterwards so I opened the door and she continued attacking until just before the police arrived. "When the police turned up she screamed that I had beaten her black and blue. But they said 'Christina you don't have any marks on you.' She had ripped my clothes off and I had bite marks and scratches everywhere. "Whatever she was doing was abuse. I decided it was the last time I was going to put up with it. I had no choice and could not keep doing it so went ahead and gave a police statement. "Everything was all on camera and I knew she couldn't get away with it this time. "I finally felt like I was going to be supported and I didn't see that I had any other option than to stop it." Adam said the incident detailed in court was the culmination of a troublesome and volatile relationship that began soon after he met Schmid. The duo first met in late 2018 while she was grooming his dogs. He claimed what followed during their five year marriage ruined his entire life - including a hugely successful property business he had built up. He said: "She made out she had been abused by her ex-partner so I felt protective. We now know this never happened. "At the time I just wanted to look after her. She had obviously had a bad time with Oz and done all this good stuff with the war widow campaigning. I believed she was a good person and thought I was good at judging people. "But it turns out I wasn't at all. "It even came out at Oz's inquest that he didn't want to come back from tours and her ex-partners all lived the same life I did with her. "I put up with so many things I shouldn't but I thought she had had a tough time and I wanted to try and support her. "I can not believe now that I fell for it. I can not even explain why or how I did but now realise I was just trapped in an abusive relationship." Early incidents in the relationship included not being let into the house after work and being forced to sleep in laybys and airbnbs. Police were also called on five occasions after he reported abuse - and each time she would throw the same accusations back at him. He added: "She would be derogatory about me to everyone. I just wanted to prove what she was saying was wrong, but the reality was everything that she accused me of was what she was doing to me. "I thought I was deeply in love and put everything down to her suffering from trauma. "I knew I was not the person I was being accused of being, but I accepted her doing things to me as part of feeling sorry for her." Things spiralled when when they bought an eight-bed detached home together near Ivybridge, Devon. "I was renovating the house but nothing was good enough," Adam recalled. "When we moved to Devon she wouldn't come. We had just bought a £1.5M house but she moved into one of the houses on my development." Social services then spent four months investigating Adam over his wife's abuse claims without speaking to him. When she was eventually arrested, Adam received an apology and acknowledgment that the accusations were false and he had been the victim. By this time, Adam says that the damage had been done. "What I don't understand is that Christina could have divorced me and we could have walked away with £800k each - but she wanted to destroy everything," he says. "There was no reason to want to destroy and ruin me, it was at her own detriment. We have been married for five years but in truth I don't have a clue who she is. "She would just say and do anything to fit in with any situation so you never really knew what was genuine or who she was. "She would go to my work and pretend to own the site and ask the staff not to tell me about her conversations with them. "We got married in October 2020 and I tried to cancel but she went mental. I felt I got bullied in to marrying her. "I was the type of person that had never been bullied into anything before. I had my own money and stability so I don't have any explanation why I did marry her. I was earning £300k a year. I was certainly not with her for the money." Adam said even a £16k engagement ring was "not enough." "She made me feel not good enough and that I should be grateful for her. It was an absolute world of craziness. "Police came to the house five times when she was attacking me. Each time she threatened to spread lies and destroy me and my businesses. The police were not supportive to me despite her attacking me. "I worked really hard to give my daughter stability but now I can not give her anything. I knew if I walked away from the house and life she would destroy it. "The only reason it stopped was what happened on 17 September. There were so many incidents but police told me they were going to protect me now. "The police encouraged me to write a statement and that they would protect me, but I was failed at every step. You can see why men don't get help and give up." Adam said since Schmid had him arrested for false allegations he has never been back to the house and she had been granted an 'occupation order' but she has since built up large mortgage arrears. Speaking on the situation, he said: "I was promised I'd be looked after but have been left with nothing. She somehow got an occupation order despite being charged and convicted. She has sold everything of mine - including £60k worth of my tools." According to Adam "a lot of people" had believed the false accusations that he was an abuser, which essentially "ruined his life." "I felt embarrassed to go out," he said candidly. "She got the house back and had an occupation order for it. Her terms for the order where that I was able to live on my boat, however, she tracked down my boat and sold it off leaving me with nothing and no where to live. "I was left to sleep in the car, campsites and airbnbs. She had not just taken the house but had taken away my income. "I had owned sites for five years but all the people I worked for and invested in me thought I was an abuser. She was spreading that message to everyone." Adam said he went from "place to place" for two years and didn't want to get into another relationship. However, he has now found himself in a happy relationship with his new partner. He also revealed he was made bankrupt over a £8k debt to a school that he had planned to pay back before the next hearing, but claims Christina hid the letter and bragged to her friends that he 'wouldn't be attending'. "I literally have nothing - I now only have adhoc work but used to be on around £300k a year. "I left my marriage with just the clothes and shoes I got arrested in, I was never allowed back to get anything from my life it was all stolen, sold and destroyed. "The house that was meant to be our dream home is now £96k in arrears on the mortgage so the home is going to get repossessed at some point in the near future. "I had a carpentry company with a business partner that had a turnover of £2.5M. We went our separate ways and I started getting into property development. "These included turning a care home into flats and some large barn conversions. I had started work on a barn conversion in Devon and she told the bank I was money laundering and that I had beaten her up and abused her. "It took four months to look into it at a rate of £40k interest a month. I had borrowed £4M but even though they said they could see none of it was true unfortunately I did not have enough money to finish the job due to the amount of interest accrued during the investigation. "I had given everything in my life to put into that site to make something bigger - but they called in my loans and the bank now owns it." Adam says he's now trying to move on and said Schmid's exposure in the court had been a relief. "I am pleased the truth has been seen and she was held accountable but it is such a small percentage of what she has put us through," he said. "I feel let down by all the other stuff that has happened though. It is all too late for us. She is still in the house and doing what she wants, slandering my name with false accusations to ensure I cant work and we've been left with nothing. "I just feel such utter disgust for what she did. She is a horrible, horrible woman and has ruined my entire life. "I've never met anyone like her. I just feel wiped out by everything that has gone on. I feel numb and don't want to speak to anyone. "While she is still out there she is hell for everyone she meets. "She fooled me and she fooled the nation in some respects. "She even sold Oz's George Cross medal. That is something that you should treasure and not look at it as a monetary thing. I met Oz's family at the last Remembrance and Christina has brought heartache and pain to their family. I am truly saddened for the pain that they have suffered due to her actions and am embarrassed that she was my wife. " Schmid became a figurehead for those bereaved by service personnel after her husband Staff Sergeant Olaf 'Oz' Schmid died in Afghanistan in 2009. The mother-of-two had previously become a 'face of the war widows' and campaigned for better pensions for them and higher salaries for those in the armed forces. She had previously called on politicians to 'fight as hard as Olaf did' for peace. Her work on the issues led her to meet with then Prime Minister David Cameron and various members of the royal family - including the late Queen at a private ceremony where she received the George Cross on behalf of her husband who disabled dozens of roadside bombs. In 2012, Schmid announced she had found love once again with another serving member of the Armed Forces called Mark Clarke, telling the world she had 'Oz's blessing'. The pair had posed for a lavish photoshoot with Hello! magazine to announce their relationship. Their relationship, however, broke down, with the couple choosing to go their separate ways in June 2019. Just over a year later Schmid married her second husband, Adam, a divorced father-of-one in an intimate ceremony at Bovey Castle, Devon. In 2021 they bought a beautiful eight-bedroom detached property in the genteel village near Ivybridge, Devon, set in 5.2 acres. Get daily breaking news updates on your phone by joining our WhatsApp community here . We occasionally treat members to special offers, promotions and ads from us and our partners. See our Privacy Notice
