'He was gaslighting me': The double life of my rapist ex

Image caption, Angharad was "lied heavily" to by Salil Korambayil during their relationship, when she was pregnant and a new mother By Rebecca Ricks BBC South West Investigations Published 8 July 2026, 05:59 BST Former NHS surgeon Salil Korambayil has been convicted of rape. As he serves a 14-year sentence for his crimes, the mother of his child describes the harrowing experience of learning about her now ex-partner's crimes. Returning home from a play date with her baby, new mum Angharad found her partner "curled up in a ball, rocking on the sofa". A trainee surgeon at Royal Cornwall Hospital, Salil Korambayil had been sent home from work – accused, he claimed, of something he did not do. "There was a sturdy bang on the door," Angharad says. "Then an officer came and said, 'we're arresting your partner for sexual assault'." Officers searched their home for hours, rifling through personal belongings. "I felt so vulnerable," says Angharad. "[Like] how is this happening? How is this my life?" The pair had met at East Surrey Hospital in October 2016 when she was a newly qualified nurse and he was a junior doctor. She had not long been out of a relationship and found him sweet and caring. "He showered you with support, would always be there for you when you needed him," Angharad recalls. "He was so charming." Within a few months, they were officially a couple and he had met her friends and parents. Image source, Angharad Image caption, Korambayil was living a double life - he was pictured here with Angharad and his baby in January 2021, four months after the first rape for which he was later convicted When Korambayil moved to north Devon for his planned hospital rotation in 2019, Angharad followed a few months later. The pair started work at the same hospital and moved in together. "I'd get home from work and there'd be dinner laid out ready for me with a glass of wine, there'd be a note on the dinner saying, 'I hope you had a good shift'," she says. "He could be so sweet." But soon, there were rumours about Korambayil's behaviour – both at work and outside it too – which he would sometimes pre-emptively warn her about. "He would be very clever, he would say quite bluntly and openly, 'oh, so-and-so said I touched their bum but I didn't do that," recalls Angharad. "It was all 'poor me, I don't know what I am doing wrong'. When people told her they had seen him out with other people, he reassured her and made her feel secure, she adds. "Everything now, in hindsight, was the truth. It makes me feel stupid for believing him. I feel like I was under some sort of strange spell," she continues. Image caption, The pair had travelled widely together including to Australia and China before Angharad's shocking realisation she was living with a rapist In August 2020, a woman made an accusation of rape to Devon and Cornwall Police about Korambayil. However, according to the force, she was not in a position to support an investigation at the time and the com