TV star Victoria’s tears over father who beat her
TV presenter Victoria Derbyshire wept as she revealed in a BBC documentary last night the domestic abuse she suffered as a child.
She said she feared her violent father would slap her or whip her with his belt.
And she recalled how she felt her body tensing when she heard his key in the door as he arrived home from work.
Miss Derbyshire, 51, broke down in tears as she returned to her childhood home in Littleborough, Rochdale, for Panorama: Escaping My Abuser. The documentary followed her as she investigated the scale and nature of domestic abuse during lockdown. It found that two thirds of those living with an abuser said the violence has worsened as a result of the pandemic.
In an article for the BBC News website, Miss Derbyshire, a mother of two, said: ‘Growing up, I remember my whole body tensing every time I heard my father’s key in the back door. What mood would he be in when he came home from work? Would he provoke an argument? Would it lead to him hitting me, whipping me with his belt or just slapping me round the back of my head?’
Going to school ‘meant respite from the disruptive shouting and cruel violence’ while ‘the love in our lives came from my amazing mum who did everything she could to make up for his failings’. Her parents divorced in 1985 when she was 17. She has a brother, former county cricketer Nick, 49, and sister Alex, 47.
On seeing the house for the first time since the family left 35 years ago, Miss Derbyshire said: ‘I could really cry.’ She recalled some ‘really difficult times’ while living with her violent father Anthony, now dead, revealing that she once ran to the police when he attacked her mother Pauline.
She said: ‘If he was in the house we were on eggshells the whole time. Once, he locked my mum in their bedroom and he was hitting her. So I ran down to the police station which was maybe a mile. I was 12 or 13, I was so scared, I just ran to the police station, just ran in and said, “My dad’s hitting my mum, please can you come”.’
Miss Derbyshire said that when Boris Johnson announced the coronavirus lockdown in March ‘one of my first thoughts was, “So, what if you are living in a house with a violent partner”. Because you would be literally trapped.’
She teamed up with charity Women’s Aid to carry out the first in-depth research about the impact of lockdown on domestic abuse. A Freedom of Information request to police forces across the UK revealed that they received a call for help every 30 seconds in the first seven weeks, with poisoning, kidnap, arson and revenge porn among the incidents recorded against men and women.
Three quarters of those living with an abuser said lockdown had made it harder for them to escape.
Refuge, which runs the National Domestic Abuse Helpline, has reported ‘huge spikes in the number of women who have needed our support during lockdown’, with an increase of 77 per cent during June.
Lisa King, director of communications at Refuge, said: ‘Victoria’s brave disclosure of her own experiences of abuse will almost certainly empower more women to seek support. Refuge’s services operate around the clock and we want to reassure survivors they are not alone.’
■ The National Domestic Abuse Helpline can be contacted free on 0808 2000 247.
‘I was so scared I ran to the police’