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Paul Donnison tells court that his wife, Fiona, would refuse to let him see their children unless he did what she said The father of two toddlers allegedly killed by their mother has told a court how she increasingly used the children to control him. Paul Donnison, 48, spoke of his love for three-year-old Harry and two-year-old Elise Donnison as he gave evidence on the third day of their mother Fiona Donnison’s trial at Lewes crown court. The children’s bodies were found zipped up in two separate holdalls in the boot of her car near the former family home in Heathfield, East Sussex, on 27 January last year. Donnison, 45, denies two counts of murder. As he gave evidence, Paul Donnison did not look at his former partner as he told jurors he was left in “complete disbelief” when he returned home from work five months before the children’s deaths to find she had moved out without warning, taking them with her. He said he lived a “nightmare” during the ensuing months, as at first she would not tell him where Harry and Elise were, and then told him he could see them only on her terms. Paul Donnison said he and his former partner attempted reconciliations on several occasions but she would suddenly change her mind. If he arrived at the house she had rented in Lightwater, Surrey, any later than arranged she would not let him in and would often cancel without explanation, he said. “It was blowing hot and cold,” he said. “If I did what I was told, things were fine; if I didn’t, I was told I wouldn’t see the children, and so on and so forth. As long as she had control of the children, she had control of me.” He admitted he had begun seeing an old school friend, Alison Shimmens, but said their friendship was strictly platonic until he knew his relationship with Fiona Donnison was definitely over. The court heard that one evening when he was visiting Shimmens at her home in Woking, Surrey, Fiona Donnison turned up without warning and demanded he went to her house. She then told him she had made a big mistake and wanted him back. “She was controlling things and I had reached the point where you can’t keep being manipulated and moved around and told what to do,” Paul Donnison said. “I felt like Fiona was playing a game with me. If I didn’t do what she said or if she didn’t have control of me, the children were the key.” But he said that for the sake of being able to see his children he again tried to make things work, even though from day to day “it was extremely difficult to know which person you would be talking to”. On New Year’s Eve he briefly left the house in the early evening and when he returned, Donnison would not let him in the house, despite freezing cold weather. Asked by prosecutor Christine Laing QC about his reaction to the fact that Fiona Donnison’s new home in Lightwater, an area she had no previous links with, was 100 yards from the house his ex-wife lived in with her new husband, he said: “I was absolutely stunned. “I was stunned that Fiona moved there, but bearing in mind it made Fiona the focus of attention. It clearly disturbed me and I know it disturbed my ex-wife.” He said that from the start of their relationship 10 years ago, “I was always aware that she was very manipulative”. He added: “When she wanted to she could be wonderful.” She was a “great hostess” and a “wonderful cook”, he said. Sometimes she could be provocative, antagonistic and confrontational, he said. “She basically wanted the best of everything at all times and almost from the start the house wasn’t good enough, my income wasn’t good enough, the holidays we had weren’t good enough.” She referred to herself as MBW – or main breadwinner – he added. He said Fiona Donnison lived beyond her means and despite having a well-paid job in the City, told him she had amassed debts of up to £50,000 when they decided to move in together. The trial continues. Helen Carter guardian.co.uk