Kent's Domestic Abuse Epidemic

KentOnline / KMTV

Kent Tonight investigates the scale of domestic abuse across the county.

Transcript

00:30I realised how toxic and how volatile our relationship was and the cycle that just kept

00:41repeating and repeating itself.

00:45I thought if it wasn't violence and it wasn't damage to my property, then that wasn't domestic

00:50abuse. I didn't realise controlling finances, racking up debt in my name, that was domestic

00:54abuse.

00:561 in 4, that's the number of women that will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime

01:03and it's an issue far closer to home than many may realise.

01:09New data obtained by KMTV provides a snapshot into the scale of domestic abuse in Kent,

01:16with police reports more than doubling between 2014 and 2023.

01:23Over the last few months, we have spoken to those providing vital support and the

01:28women whose lives have been turned upside down by domestic abuse to find out how we

01:34can tackle this issue plaguing our communities.

01:38I don't think we're where we need to be.

01:41Many of the children we support have never heard of domestic abuse before.

01:45In order to change the epidemic, we need to start from grassroots.

01:49This is Kent's domestic abuse epidemic.

01:53Between 1 January 2014 and 12 September this year, there were nearly 330,000 reports of

02:02domestic abuse to Kent Police.

02:05Though changes in how police record these crimes makes it difficult to make direct comparisons

02:11between different years.

02:14What we do know is that every local authority in Kent has seen a rise, with one place in

02:20particular seeing more reports of domestic abuse than anywhere else.

02:25Over the last decade, there's been 61,000 reports of domestic abuse from people here

02:31in Medway.

02:32That accounts for around 20% of all domestic abuse reports from over the last decade from

02:39across the entire county.

02:42It's easy to see those as just numbers, just statistics, but those people would have walked

02:47down the same high street I'm stood on right now, shopped in the same shops that I'm stood

02:53right next to.

02:54They're co-workers, friends, family members, and if you pass them on the street, you may

02:59not even know they're victims of domestic abuse.

03:02See, I was high-flying in my career, I didn't want to admit I was a victim of domestic abuse.

03:08I wanted to go to school, go to work.

03:11I didn't want people to think anything different of me, so I didn't know when to get the help

03:14because, well, I was 25 at the time.

03:17Katie Longhurst met her perpetrator back in 2012 when she lived in Chatham.

03:24Over the next four years, she would go on to make nearly 170 reports of domestic abuse

03:32to four different police forces.

03:35Despite her perpetrator being out of her life a decade later, the scars of that experience

03:41have not gone away.

03:44The primary goal of my ex was to isolate me.

03:47He couldn't have me, no one could have me.

03:49That meant friends, that meant family, and people start to question you as a person because

03:54your behaviour looks erratic, because you don't know how to deal with the situation

03:57that you're in.

03:58So your behaviour changes overnight.

04:01You become quiet, you become withdrawn, you isolate yourself from everyone to protect

04:06them.

04:07While domestic abuse can happen to anyone, women and children are most vulnerable.

04:13Across the county in Margate, Oasis Domestic Abuse Services provides specialist support

04:19to mothers and young people.

04:22This was an unhealthy relationship that he was watching again and again, and he would

04:28turn, I didn't want him to grow to be a perpetrator or to be a victim.

04:34Chloe is one of the mothers who received support from Oasis.

04:38We've anonymised her to protect her identity, but she says she wouldn't be where she is

04:43today without it.

04:44It's taken a lot of support and work, but honestly, the split was the best thing that's

04:55ever happened to him.

04:57He's now much calmer, he's happy, he's settled, he's doing well socially, he's doing well

05:05academically, he's a well-rounded boy, and it's hard to believe that it's the same traumatised

05:14child that lived through that awful time.

05:18But it's in providing support for young people that Oasis is finding its greatest challenges.

05:24In our Children's and Young People's Service, we often have to decline as many referrals

05:29as we accept, and we see hundreds of children a year.

05:34So it's a rising problem, and every domestic abuse service has a limited capacity, depending

05:43on how many staff we have funding for.

05:47There is no statutory government funding for children who have experienced domestic abuse

05:53for support for them, apart from, quite rightly, children who are living in refuges and safe

05:59accommodation.

06:01However, that's a very small percentage of the children who need support.

06:09We maybe have, I think, eight children in our refuges at the moment, but we have supported

06:14over 100 in the last year in the community who are living in their own homes.

06:20It's not just Oasis that's struggling.

06:23Cetida supports domestic abuse victims across Medway and Swale.

06:29But the Sittingbourne-based charity is seeing more people seeking help than ever before

06:35in its 15-year history.

06:38Since 2023, service use has risen by 50%, with more than 1,800 women and children receiving

06:47vital support.

06:48I mean, unfortunately, these are statistics I'm well aware of.

06:52We have a real problem in this area, and it's a big challenge.

06:56Some of it's linked to the broader challenges that, in my constituency and Swale as a whole,

07:01we face.

07:02We have high levels of deprivation, economic exclusion in the area.

07:06That's a known linked factor to particularly violence against women and girls and domestic

07:13crises and violence.

07:15But let's be blunt.

07:17We need to make, as a government and as a country, we need to tackle this head on.

07:21Our mission is one for the whole country, to halve violence against women and girls

07:27within a decade.

07:29That has to start with drastically improving the policing and criminal justice response.

07:36We heard from the incoming government, or the new government, a lot of promises and

07:40talk around what their ambition is.

07:42Having heard a number of ministers speaking, it was really encouraging in the early days.

07:47It was really sad that in the budget they didn't use the opportunity to secure the existing

07:51funding that's being paid to specialised services.

07:55We need a commitment that's long term, not just piecemeal, year by year.

07:59And that actually rises with inflationary costs.

08:01I think it's forgotten that there's been an increase in national insurance contributions,

08:07which charities were not exempt from.

08:09So our costs go up, regardless of whether we get more money in or not.

08:14The government say they are committed to tackling domestic abuse and halving violence against

08:19women and girls over the next decade.

08:23And there are signs things are improving.

08:26Our data shows the number of reports of domestic abuse has begun to fall since peaking in 2021.

08:33Though this only reflects the number of people who have come forward to Kent Police.

08:38The number of unreported victims is likely to be higher.

08:43None of this changes the fact that numbers are still higher than they were a decade ago.

08:50The question is why?

08:52We find that those numbers, as you mentioned, are probably unrepresented of the true cases.

08:58With agencies like ours, we give women choice about whether they go to the police or not.

09:04And because of the problems in our justice system and the delays and some of the mistrust,

09:08we find that women don't want to report.

09:10On the one hand, we do have the rise of online misogyny and in-cell culture, which is creating

09:16a generation of young men who have a very polarised view of women and girls and the

09:22role of women and girls in their lives.

09:25We have to take into consideration we had Covid in the middle of that.

09:28So in Covid, you're locked at home with your perpetrator.

09:33So obviously there's going to be higher incidences because if you look at the patterns,

09:38like when there's a big football event, incidents rise at Christmas.

09:43Incidents rise because you're at home with that person.

09:45Issues such as the cost of living crisis, growing poverty, financial pressures on families

09:53and unstable communities because of the housing crisis.

09:57There are all of these other contextual pressures on families.

10:02But the rise in domestic abuse, specifically around power and control issues, is an attitudinal

10:08problem among perpetrators.

10:12There's also now, there's so many campaigns about recognising domestic abuse.

10:15More people are coming forward and realise that they're actually in an abusive relationship.

10:18The increasing awareness of domestic abuse means that those that are affected are able

10:23to come forward and that will give an inflation in the figures.

10:26But what it means is we're reaching those that are really in need that perhaps didn't

10:29realise they were victims of abuse beforehand.

10:33When it comes to domestic abuse, there are no easy answers.

10:38The reason these numbers paint such a bleak picture for Kent is not because they rise

10:43or fall, but because they count the darkest moments in someone's life.

10:49But there's plenty they don't count.

10:52They don't count the amount of support available, the number of people willing to listen, those

10:58willing to learn and unlearn.

11:01Kent may be facing an epidemic of domestic abuse.

11:06The question now is how we're going to prevent it.

11:11Just feeling like I was not alone was amazing.

11:14Honestly, hearing those words, I believe you, changed everything for me, gave me a new lease

11:19of life.

11:20He doesn't hold the same power over me because I'm so much stronger now.

11:28I want to speak, but I'm wondering how And I wonder since when was my voice a foreign

11:50object in my mouth But what you're doing for me, I just wish

11:57I could do I could do it for you

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