Domesticabuse

Since the coronavirus lockdown the National Domestic Abuse Helpline has seen a 49 per cent increase in calls, there has been double the average usual number of women murdered in the first four weeks and in London the Met Police are making a record 100 domestic abuse arrests a day.

In addition, in the same first four weeks 14 women in the United Kingdom were shot, stabbed, beaten or burned to death – a rather sobering statistic.

Tens of thousands of women nationwide are living in terror of physical and mental abuse – more so because their partners are furloughed and they are now closely together.

Some people in the Scottish Borders like to think that it is not a problem here, but I am reliably informed that on average more than one woman, often with children, flees her home each week.

A close relative once lived on a posh, up-market estate in the Borders and the incidences of domestic abuse were a disgrace, so it’s not just happening in social housing areas.

Here in Scotland local authorities have no powers to evict the perpetrators of domestic abuse. What the police can do is also limited.

The perpetrators know that they can behave like this and get away with it unless the law changes, but thankfully here in the Borders there is an excellent refuge for women – I won’t reveal where it is.

In the 1990s I worked in the hospitality trade, where up to 90 weddings would take place on average a year.

I recall that one of the staff who was previously an abused wife until she took action to put a stop to it often commented that she worried how many of the brides dressed in their finery would end up like she did.

The problem needs tackling and now, but I reckon there is not the political will to do so; domestic abuse is a hidden killer and in our society there is no place for abuse either physical or mental.

ANDREW HEATLIE

Cleland Avenue, Peebles