FOCUS ON... DOMESTIC ABUSE
BEHIND
CLOSED DOORS Domestic abuse soared during lockdown. Police records reveal more than 845,000 incidents took place in England and Wales – a rise of six per cent. We hear from victims and talk to an expert helping people regain their life.
by Jackie Rankin and Joanne Cunningham
It was ‘little things’ like control over the colours of her clothes, then alienating her from her family.
S
he was Scary Spice, the fiercest of 90’s pop idols, the Spice Girls. Yet Melanie Brown has revealed years of abuse from her ex-husband. Four years after escaping and returning to her family home in Leeds, she’s received an MBE for her work with Women’s Aid – and dedicated it to others who have suffered in abusive relationships.
Her own abuse ran over a decade. At first she says, it was ‘little things’ like control 4 over the colours of her clothes, then
alienating her from her family. Threats of violence became real and when she self medicated with drink and drugs, Stephen Belafonte threatened to take away her children. Refuge, which runs the national domestic abuse helpline, reported a 61per cent increase in calls and contacts logged during the first lockdown. For Melanie Brown the realisation that she wasn’t alone came only when she talked to women at a refuge near her family home. “We all had exactly the same story.”
ANYONE CAN BE A
VICTIM Abuse can happen to anyone. You may not even realise it’s happening to you. Read Aiden’s story. “She was very subtle, with sly digs. I caught her checking my phone, reading a football WhatsApp group I was in. She removed my access to our joint account then said it was the bank’s error. She’d say my ideas were rubbish, that I was being unreasonable, I felt I was going mad.
