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AN elderly couple has moved in next door and I think he knocks her about.

She once told me they’ve been married for 35 years, but I can hear him screaming like a banshee.

Sometimes I’m watching TV and it sounds like a war zone in there with crockery smashing and stuff hitting the walls.

He’s nice enough to me in the street, but it sounds like he’s got a vicious temper.

I don’t know what to do. How can they still be fighting after all of these years? Why doesn’t she leave him?

I understand that their children have grown up and moved away, but they never come back to visit.

She always looks frazzled and frightened. I want to help her, but I don’t know what to do.

JANE SAYS: Tragically, it’s not only younger people who suffer from domestic violence.

Some victims endure cruel barbs and blows for years and years.

It could be that your female neighbour is so ground down and demoralised that all of her confidence has deserted her.

Decades of being told that she’s nothing have left her believing it. Now she is terrified and doesn’t know anything else or which way to turn.

I suspect she’s ashamed and humiliated. If you’re inclined to get involved, you could invite her in for a cup of tea and then slip her the number for the National Domestic Violence Helpline (0808 2000 247), which is run in partnership between Women’s Aid and Refuge.

You don’t have to embarrass her further, but simply make it clear there are places she can go and people who can help her.

Alternatively, you are entitled to ring the council and the police regarding the stress and noise you are experiencing.