Sharing stories of abuse

Last week an Islington woman died at the hands of her abusive partner. Two more women in the UK will die this week according to statistics, and with police nationwide receiving a call every minute begging for protection from partners, Jessica Salter investigates the dark world of domestic violence.

AT first it was nothing, just the odd rude comment. Then one day Amy's
boyfriend smashed her head into a shop window. But she did not think
she was a victim of domestic violence – he was just upset. Only after
a year of abuse of what was becoming a routine trip to A&E when a
nurse explained what was happening did Amy find the courage to leave.
Fiona has a similar story. Her husband raped her, and twice when she
fell pregnant his beatings were so severe that she miscarried. She hid
her bruises for five years until she ended up in her local hospital's
severe head injuries unit.
But Amy and Fiona are the lucky ones – they escaped. Last week an
Islington woman died at the hands of her abusive partner – two more
women in the UK will die this week according to statistics. Nationally
police receive one call a minute begging for help from domestic
violence, but this woman had never come to police attention.
Helen Williams, Inspector of community safety unit in Islington, says:
"By the time we come to hear about it, it can often be too late. We
estimate that victims experience about 35 incidents of abuse before
they report it to the police. So when they do finally report you know
there's been a build up."
Islington police received 3,365 complaints of domestic violence in
2004-5, mainly from women. In Britain women suffer 12.9 million acts
of abuse and men are the victims of 2.5 million incidents annually,
according to the British Crime Survey. The government estimate
domestic violence costs the UK £23 billion annually and Islington
alone almost £11 million in services.
Monica Tuohy from Islington's Women's Aid, which has operated in the
borough for 25 years, is part of Islington's domestic violence
awareness week. She says: "It's incredibly important that we tell
women that they're not alone."
Although Inspector Williams and Ms Tuohy both deal with cases of
domestic violence in Islington every day, amazingly they have never
before routinely shared information about the victims they help.
Now, for the first time, all Islington agencies involved in domestic
violence cases, including local services like education, housing and
social services, will share information so they can build up a borough
wide picture of the problem.
In two weeks time, Inspector Williams will chair the first
Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) on April 4. She says:
"For the first time we will have a clear picture of lifestyles and
violence that is happening but that each individual agencies might not
know.
"Part of the tragic circumstances surrounding the Victoria Climbie
case [when social services, doctors and police in Haringey were blamed
for missing persistent child abuse] was a lack of sharing information.
We've been determined to learn from that."
MARAC will meet fortnightly to decide action plans on the ten most
high-risk victims in the borough.
"The cases will keep coming back to conference until either the
partner is no more, the victim is in safe accommodation or we deem
that the victim's risk has been severely reduced," Inspector Williams
says.
Ms Tuohy has worked with domestic violence forums in different
boroughs. "Lots of these forums are very ineffective – they're just a
talking shop. Here in Islington we've taken a huge step forward, we're
not just talking, we're actually doing."
National initiative on domestic violence measure success by criminal
prosecutions, but domestic violence is notoriously underreported and
conviction rates are low. Last year Highbury Corner Magistrates Court
heard 151 cases of domestic violence, despite the police receiving
over 3,000 complaints, and only found 52 per cent of offenders guilty
- in part due to lack of evidence.
Inspector Williams said she hoped that the new system would mean
police could gather enough evidence to make more prosecutions. "We
hope that through MARAC we will be able to take more offenders to
court but for us, the real success is going to be if the victims take
back control of their lives."
Among the programme of events to raise awareness about domestic
violence is a performance of the Vagina Monologues, an art exhibition
and a workshop for women in the Somali community and on Monday, the
launch of the police's initiative third party reporting, where
neighbours and friends can step in and call the police on the victims
behalf.
Inspector Williams is confident that Islington's domestic violence
victims will benefit from these new initiatives. She says: "We're only
here to empower and support the survivors."