But little did she know just how close to tragedy it would lead her.

The beatings were especially brutal and at one stage her husband grabbed her neck and snarled: "I am going to kill you.'' Fearing for her life, something inside of Jayne snapped.

Her marriage had become a nightmare sequence of drink-fuelled beatings -- punctuated by her husband's stumbling apologies -- and she saw only one escape.

"Don't worry, I'll save you the trouble,'' she said, seizing a vast quantity of pills and stuffing them in her mouth.

Looking back on the episode, 53-year-old Jayne is adamant it wasn't a desperate cry for help.

"I overdosed -- it was a genuine suicide attempt. My husband was trying to choke me and I couldn't take any more.'' This was husband number two.

Four-times married Jayne was 18 when she first made her wedding vows -- to a singer, who soon found family life too confining.

"His singing career meant more to him than our marriage, but I wouldn't say he was abusive,'' she says with a wry smile.

"I am an asthmatic and I found it very difficult to raise on my own our two children, who are now 31 and 32 now. I got divorced when they were five and six.'' Shortly afterwards, Jayne's nightmare began. While in hospital, she caught the eye of one of the orderlies, who was four years younger than her.

And it was not long before the orderly had become husband number two.

"I fell in love with him. I was brought up in an age when you married a man if you lived with him.'' Jayne soon had her third child, a daughter. But the joy was short-lived as her husband's dark secret emerged.

"He was very bright, but alcohol was one of his big problems. I wasn't aware of it to start with, but he liked to drink and smoke marijuana.'' Struggling financially, Jayne, then 29, and her husband embarked on a roller coaster lifestyle.

"We were constantly on the move. We moved from pillar to post every year, never knowing how we were going to pay for all the bills.

"My family were very supportive and the churches were very supportive, but whenever we left church, my husband would go round to Court Street to see his friends.

"He told me he was not going to push his friends away. He had to be with his clique.

"I felt that if I joined his friends it would save our marriage, so I started to drink with them.'' Jayne's efforts backfired as her husband became mentally and physically abuse.

On one occasion Police were called after he damaged her back by picking her up and throwing her like a rag-doll.

The abuse was followed by the familiar words: "Honey, please forgive me. I didn't mean it''.

"I found I was getting more and more stress, and the more stress I had the more I would get sick with asthma,'' Jayne recalls.

"Emotional problems bring on asthma. It was getting really hard to cope.'' With her children now aged ten or 11, Jayne knew her marriage was coming apart at the seams. To ease the financial crisis, she got a job at a nursing home.

As she got ready for work, her husband became increasingly aggressive, demanding to know where she was going.

"He said he would come with me, and I said `fine'. I went round to the Police station and told this constable that I wanted my husband to leave me alone.'' A look of disgust flashes across Jayne's face as she recalls another incident.

"One night, because he was so drunk, he lost sense of direction where the bathroom was and peed in the drawer in our bedroom.

"The next day he tried to blame my son for what he had done. He would never accept the blame.'' She adds: "Alcohol was what destroyed our marriage. My husband would lose his job through drinking. He would find jobs and then lose them again.'' Jayne admits her next marriage was on the rebound -- with disastrous consequences.

"He was a social drinker. I drank too, but I never considered myself an alcoholic.

"The marriage soon started to deteriorate and he began to go cold towards me.

That was 12 years ago.'' Jayne says her husband refused to discuss their marital problems, his sullenness soon turning to violence.

"He would lock the kitchen and front door and start physically pushing me around.

"I ended up fighting and I started to throw things at him. The second time we both ended up in hospital.

"He was a boxer -- a lightweight boxer -- and struck me on the temple. I banged my head on the side of the fridge.'' Jayne got her revenge by throwing a concoction she boiled in his face.

"I caught the side of his face. He screamed and screamed and screamed. Both of us had abused each other.

"I could not see out of my eye, for he had injured the jawbone. When I got to the hospital the nurse told me to get photographs and see an attorney.

"The marriage dissolved. It had not even been a year.'' Jayne's fourth marriage -- to a mechanic -- was a similar saga of heavy drinking and violence.

After one night of drinking and partying, her husband drove her to Ferry Reach and kicked and beat her.

"He took me to an apartment where I was housesitting and beat me. I was black and blue.

"But when we both got up the next morning he began making stories about what had happened.

"He told me my behaviour was bad and said he didn't think I should drink any black rum because it changes my personality.'' The fighting continued when the couple moved to St. George's. On one occasion Jayne had to seek refuge at the Police station and on another she had a knife pressed against her throat.

"He always had his way of saying sorry after a fight.'' Further horrors were in store for Jayne. This time from her brother-in-law.

The memories still painfully fresh, Jayne recounts an episode last year which resulted in a highly-publicised court case.

Her brother-in-law was jailed for three years for sexually assaulting her and causing bodily harm.

In the case, Jayne testified she had passed out soon after the man had got on top of her. She awoke the next morning in pain.

The court heard it was uncertain whether intercourse had taken place.

Jayne says she is now putting her life together. And doesn't need a man to help her to do so.

"My message to women who are being abused is: Don't be afraid to tell someone. Don't be afraid to cry for help.''