Over 4,500 Disclosures Of Physical Abuse To Women's Aid Support Services - Report

Already this year, five women have lost their lives in this country.

Women's Aid heard 4,509 disclosures of physical abuse including assault, with an object (including a hammer, golf club, hurl, gun), strangulation, pushing and shoving, harm with knives including cutting and stabbing, punching and slapping, inflicting physical injuries including broken bones, and having hair pulled out and teeth broken, according to Women's Aid annual report.

There was a 16% rise in the number of contacts made with Women's Aid support services last year.

The organisation, which works to prevent and address the impact of domestic violence and abuse, received 31,229 contacts last year.

Support workers heard almost 34,000 disclosures of domestic abuse against women and children.

The abuse included coercive control, emotional abuse, physical violence, sexual abuse and economic control.

Twelve women died violently last year, according to the organisation's Femicide Watch.

Already this year, five more women have lost their lives in this country.

Women's Aid 2022 annual report points out that aside from the horrific and often long-lasting impacts of abuse itself, there are many challenges today for those subjected to domestic abuse.

In 2022, there were 20,851 disclosures of emotional abuse including name-calling and verbal abuse, isolation from family and friends, stalking and being monitored both physically and online, living with the threat of physical and/or sexual violence, being forbidden to leave the home without the abuser, the abuser threatening to hurt or kill her, themselves, their children or her family or her friends.

There were 2,290 disclosures of economic abuse including the abuser denying access to household income to pay for food, medication and other necessities for themselves and the children; pressurising them into giving them large sums of money or getting them into debt; jeopardising women’s access to employment; controlling women’s income; and refusing to pay maintenance for any children in common or only paying sporadically.

There were 928 disclosures of sexual abuse including rape and sexual assault; coerced sexual activity; unwanted sexual advances; being spoken to, or about, in a sexually derogative way; and being forced to watch and re-enact pornography.

Within the above disclosures of abuse, there were 663 disclosures of digital abuse and cyber-stalking including abuse by text, email, phone call and social media; sending explicit and violent images and videos; the abuser monitoring internet use; subjecting them to image-based sexual abuse by; Secretly recording them; sharing or threatening to share intimate images of them without their consent; and blackmailing them into sending intimate images.

There were 5,006 disclosures of emotional abuse, 315 disclosures of physical abuse and 91 disclosures of sexual abuse against children.