MORNING SERIAL
TWO women a week are killed by a former or current partner in England and Wales. Last year 1.6 million women experienced domestic abuse.
These murdered women have names. Natasha Bradbury, Alison Farr-Davies and Zoe Morgan are all women killed in Wales by partners or ex-partners. I say again, this is an epidemic. If terrorism or a natural disaster inflicted the damage and misery of domestic abuse there would be round the clock media coverage, COBRA meetings and it would top of every election campaign leaflet – but it isn’t. Part of the reason for this is that it happens behind closed doors, but the real reason it does not get the money and attention it deserves is because, frankly, this crime is against women.
If you need any evidence the UK in the 2020s is not an equal place for literally half of all the human beings that live here, look no further than how we deal with domestic violence. Like every other pothole in Welsh society, coronavirus did not create the issue of domestic abuse, but because we did not do enough to fix the problem when the sun was shining the virus has turned the cracks into fissures which add to human misery and loss of life. Much like the children who were no longer able to find sanctuary at school, the lockdown also cut off women suffering abuse from their support networks. These poor women are shut in a house, often with only their abuser for company, an abuser no longer scared of leaving a mark because no-one was going to see it.
In order to combat the upsurge in domestic abuse the Welsh Government proudly announced it was offering £1.2m to fund community accommodation as well as another £200,000 for furnishings – an amount of money which would be a welcome boost for beleaguered services. Disappointingly this was not all it seemed as Welsh Women’s Aid pointed out that these funds had already been allocated. The £1.2m was originally announced in December 2019 and the £200,000 being a 2019-20 capital underspend which had already been promised last quarter.
> Lockdown Wales by Will Hayward £9.99 www.serenbooks.com/ productdisplay/lockdown-wales ISBN 9781781726013
CONTINUES TOMORROW