The wife of a man who has been accused by police of imprisoning and torturing her for a decade has rushed to his defence.

Investigators said Peter Lizon, 37, chained up Stephenie Lizon, 43, in a basement for 10 years, tortured and abused her and at one stage induced a miscarriage by punching her in the stomach.

Stephenie Lizon said that suspicions about her husband were fuelled by nothing but a string of unrelated events that have all been misinterpreted by police.

They include a visit to a domestic crisis centre, a miscarriage in 2009, and random farming injuries.

Her husband has been arrested and charged with malicious wounding. She insisted her family was being "victimised by gossip".

Cuts and bruising on her body came from working on their 38-acre goat farm in West Virginia, she said.

The authorities' confusion has made "an international mockery and scandal" of the miscarriage, she added.

"Those injuries were not injuries suffered as a result of abuse," she told Dailymail.com. "Those injuries were suffered during the course of an active and hardworking life.

Farming is dangerous

"I don't understand the scepticism I'm hearing about farming being dangerous. Is farming really this dangerous? Yes, as a matter of fact it is.

"Anyone who works on a farm and rides an ATV [all-terrain vehicle] and takes part in all of these activities would not be the least bit surprised that I have bruises and bumps and injured hands."

She said the miscarriage was a result of an off-road crash.

Police swooped after she visited a domestic crisis centre in June. She had checked in there for a night with her 15-month-old son after an argument with her husband, she said.

She went in search of somewhere to "cool down" but was shut out of motels because she had no identity documents, she explained.

"I don't really appreciate Jackson County, and through them the press, making an international mockery and scandal and crime of the most tragic event in my life, and equally I don't appreciate the mockery and criminal attachments to the most beautiful event in my life when my living son was born," she said.

"If what they have that they call evidence is enough to do what they are already doing to my husband, then I don't think anyone is safe,"

"If gossip and circumstantial evidence is enough to put someone in jail ... and it's been two months now. Nobody knows what's going to happen to him.

"All citizens should take note of this. Everyone at one point in their lives has been victimised by gossip."