Supporting victims of domestic violence leads to more successful prosecutions

Nationally, the police receive one call every minute in relation to domestic violence (DV), a type of offending which sadly blights many lives. Although society as a whole has become less tolerant of abusers and victims are now more likely to report offences and seek help, women still suffer an average of 34 to 40 incidents of domestic abuse before they report it.  One in four women and one in six men will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime, children are either in the same or an adjoining room during 75% of all domestic abuse incidents and two women a week are killed by their current or former male partner.

The Crown Prosecution Service, the police and the courts recognise the scale of the problem and have all done a lot of work over recent years to improve the way these offences are handled:  The police are better trained to recognise and deal effectively with DV; Cases are now heard at specialist DV courts where prosecutors, magistrates and court staff are all trained to deal specifically with this type of offence; Witness Care Officers now offer support to vulnerable and intimidated victims and work closely with DV survivors organisations; The wider use of special measures like video links that enable witnesses to give evidence remotely has encouraged more victims to come to court.

Encouragingly, all this work is starting to pay off and Gloucestershire now has one of the highest conviction rates for domestic violence in the country. Last year 77% of DV cases brought to court in the county resulted in successful prosecutions, against a national average of 72%.

One recent case heard at Cheltenham Magistrates court involved a nasty incident where the defendant tried to avoid responsibility for what he had done.  On 18 August last year a badly injured and terrified woman ran into the street in Newent. She had just managed to escape from her boyfriend, Guy Wakefield, who had previous convictions for DV with former partners. She begged for help from a young woman passing by who called the police.

The woman told police how Wakefield had punched and kicked her, grabbed her round the throat and threatened to break her nose. Although there were no witnesses to the actual assault, the young women who had found her gave a statement confirming how distressed the woman was, that her face was badly bruised, her top was ripped and she looked as though she had been assaulted.

When interviewed, Wakefield denied that he had assaulted her, but admitted he may have accidentally caused some of her injuries when she had an epileptic fit and he had needed to hold her down. In fact, the woman confirmed that she had never suffered from epilepsy and the large amount of bruising on her body appeared far more consistent with her account and that of the independent witness.

Although she lived in a different part of Gloucestershire, she was absolutely terrified of Wakefield and went to live in a womens refuge rather than in her own home.

Wakefield pleaded not guilty and was bailed. He failed to attend several hearings before finally being arrested. The woman was very frightened about the prospect of giving evidence, but she was finally persuaded to do so once a remote video link was arranged for her. When Wakefield realised she would be giving evidence he finally entered a late guilty plea.

Although a great deal more still needs to be done to encourage people to report these offences, domestic violence is taken more seriously than ever before by all the organisations charged with dealing with it and more help and support is available for victims.

Useful contacts:

Gloucestershire Domestic Violence Support and Advocacy Project Helpline:
01452 500115
Women's Aid Domestic Abuse Helpline: 0808 2000 247
Victim Support- for victims of crime including domestic violence: 01452 317444; www.victimsupport.org.uk
Respect- for people who have, or fear they might, commit domestic violence: 0808 8024040; www.respectphoneline.org.uk
ManKind- supports male victims of domestic violence: 01823 334244; www.mankind.org.uk
Broken Rainbow supports lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people experiencing domestic violence: 0300 999 5428; broken-rainbow.org.uk