Man convicted of repeated assault on wife met through Married at First Sight show

A man who appeared on the Finnish reality TV show Married at First Sight has been convicted of assaulting his wife on 11 occasions, Yle reported on Friday. The man, whose name was not disclosed to protect the woman’s identity, was sentenced to nine months’ suspended imprisonment by a district court, which found that he had subjected her to repeated domestic violence that escalated over time, including choking, hitting, and kicking, as well as mental and financial abuse. The sentence is final.

According to the court ruling, the couple continued living together after the show ended. The relationship initially went well but then turned abusive. Several assaults occurred spontaneously when the woman was not silent or did not do what the man wanted. He hit her when she failed to start a lawnmower, choked her when she complained of tiredness after a heavy weekend, and during an argument about money choked her when she asked him to calm down. Another assault began when she told him to fetch different trousers; he choked her, pulled her hair, and struck her with his knee. The man also told her to kill herself, saying “go to the lake,” and on one occasion kicked her while saying he knew a technique to choke someone to death.

The woman feared her husband and eventually fled to a shelter. The man denied most of the charges and claimed he could not remember, saying he had sometimes had to calm the situation by pushing her by the neck because she screamed like a “fire siren.” The court rejected this defense. The couple have been granted a divorce.

The production company Banijay Finland said it was unaware of the man’s prior assault conviction. It stated that the application process is multi-stage, including questionnaires, tests, and personal interviews with experts and a psychologist, and that background checks are conducted as far as possible. The company said it has limited ability to influence participants’ private lives after the show ends but would intervene immediately if safety concerns arise during filming.

The case was also reported by Ilta-Sanomat. Earlier this week, the BBC reported that two women had said they were raped during the filming of the UK version of Married at First Sight.