Skip to player
Skip to main content
Skip to footer
Search
Connect
Watch fullscreen
Like
Comments
Bookmark
Share
Add to Playlist
Report
Kent's Domestic Abuse Epidemic
KentOnline / KMTV
Follow
30/12/2024
Kent Tonight investigates the scale of domestic abuse across the county.
Category
🗞
News
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:30
I realised how toxic and how volatile our relationship was and the cycle that just kept
00:41
repeating and repeating itself.
00:45
I thought if it wasn't violence and it wasn't damage to my property, then that wasn't domestic
00:50
abuse. I didn't realise controlling finances, racking up debt in my name, that was domestic
00:54
abuse.
00:56
1 in 4, that's the number of women that will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime
01:03
and it's an issue far closer to home than many may realise.
01:09
New data obtained by KMTV provides a snapshot into the scale of domestic abuse in Kent,
01:16
with police reports more than doubling between 2014 and 2023.
01:23
Over the last few months, we have spoken to those providing vital support and the
01:28
women whose lives have been turned upside down by domestic abuse to find out how we
01:34
can tackle this issue plaguing our communities.
01:38
I don't think we're where we need to be.
01:41
Many of the children we support have never heard of domestic abuse before.
01:45
In order to change the epidemic, we need to start from grassroots.
01:49
This is Kent's domestic abuse epidemic.
01:53
Between 1 January 2014 and 12 September this year, there were nearly 330,000 reports of
02:02
domestic abuse to Kent Police.
02:05
Though changes in how police record these crimes makes it difficult to make direct comparisons
02:11
between different years.
02:14
What we do know is that every local authority in Kent has seen a rise, with one place in
02:20
particular seeing more reports of domestic abuse than anywhere else.
02:25
Over the last decade, there's been 61,000 reports of domestic abuse from people here
02:31
in Medway.
02:32
That accounts for around 20% of all domestic abuse reports from over the last decade from
02:39
across the entire county.
02:42
It's easy to see those as just numbers, just statistics, but those people would have walked
02:47
down the same high street I'm stood on right now, shopped in the same shops that I'm stood
02:53
right next to.
02:54
They're co-workers, friends, family members, and if you pass them on the street, you may
02:59
not even know they're victims of domestic abuse.
03:02
See, I was high-flying in my career, I didn't want to admit I was a victim of domestic abuse.
03:08
I wanted to go to school, go to work.
03:11
I didn't want people to think anything different of me, so I didn't know when to get the help
03:14
because, well, I was 25 at the time.
03:17
Katie Longhurst met her perpetrator back in 2012 when she lived in Chatham.
03:24
Over the next four years, she would go on to make nearly 170 reports of domestic abuse
03:32
to four different police forces.
03:35
Despite her perpetrator being out of her life a decade later, the scars of that experience
03:41
have not gone away.
03:44
The primary goal of my ex was to isolate me.
03:47
He couldn't have me, no one could have me.
03:49
That meant friends, that meant family, and people start to question you as a person because
03:54
your behaviour looks erratic, because you don't know how to deal with the situation
03:57
that you're in.
03:58
So your behaviour changes overnight.
04:01
You become quiet, you become withdrawn, you isolate yourself from everyone to protect
04:06
them.
04:07
While domestic abuse can happen to anyone, women and children are most vulnerable.
04:13
Across the county in Margate, Oasis Domestic Abuse Services provides specialist support
04:19
to mothers and young people.
04:22
This was an unhealthy relationship that he was watching again and again, and he would
04:28
turn, I didn't want him to grow to be a perpetrator or to be a victim.
04:34
Chloe is one of the mothers who received support from Oasis.
04:38
We've anonymised her to protect her identity, but she says she wouldn't be where she is
04:43
today without it.
04:44
It's taken a lot of support and work, but honestly, the split was the best thing that's
04:55
ever happened to him.
04:57
He's now much calmer, he's happy, he's settled, he's doing well socially, he's doing well
05:05
academically, he's a well-rounded boy, and it's hard to believe that it's the same traumatised
05:14
child that lived through that awful time.
05:18
But it's in providing support for young people that Oasis is finding its greatest challenges.
05:24
In our Children's and Young People's Service, we often have to decline as many referrals
05:29
as we accept, and we see hundreds of children a year.
05:34
So it's a rising problem, and every domestic abuse service has a limited capacity, depending
05:43
on how many staff we have funding for.
05:47
There is no statutory government funding for children who have experienced domestic abuse
05:53
for support for them, apart from, quite rightly, children who are living in refuges and safe
05:59
accommodation.
06:01
However, that's a very small percentage of the children who need support.
06:09
We maybe have, I think, eight children in our refuges at the moment, but we have supported
06:14
over 100 in the last year in the community who are living in their own homes.
06:20
It's not just Oasis that's struggling.
06:23
Cetida supports domestic abuse victims across Medway and Swale.
06:29
But the Sittingbourne-based charity is seeing more people seeking help than ever before
06:35
in its 15-year history.
06:38
Since 2023, service use has risen by 50%, with more than 1,800 women and children receiving
06:47
vital support.
06:48
I mean, unfortunately, these are statistics I'm well aware of.
06:52
We have a real problem in this area, and it's a big challenge.
06:56
Some of it's linked to the broader challenges that, in my constituency and Swale as a whole,
07:01
we face.
07:02
We have high levels of deprivation, economic exclusion in the area.
07:06
That's a known linked factor to particularly violence against women and girls and domestic
07:13
crises and violence.
07:15
But let's be blunt.
07:17
We need to make, as a government and as a country, we need to tackle this head on.
07:21
Our mission is one for the whole country, to halve violence against women and girls
07:27
within a decade.
07:29
That has to start with drastically improving the policing and criminal justice response.
07:36
We heard from the incoming government, or the new government, a lot of promises and
07:40
talk around what their ambition is.
07:42
Having heard a number of ministers speaking, it was really encouraging in the early days.
07:47
It was really sad that in the budget they didn't use the opportunity to secure the existing
07:51
funding that's being paid to specialised services.
07:55
We need a commitment that's long term, not just piecemeal, year by year.
07:59
And that actually rises with inflationary costs.
08:01
I think it's forgotten that there's been an increase in national insurance contributions,
08:07
which charities were not exempt from.
08:09
So our costs go up, regardless of whether we get more money in or not.
08:14
The government say they are committed to tackling domestic abuse and halving violence against
08:19
women and girls over the next decade.
08:23
And there are signs things are improving.
08:26
Our data shows the number of reports of domestic abuse has begun to fall since peaking in 2021.
08:33
Though this only reflects the number of people who have come forward to Kent Police.
08:38
The number of unreported victims is likely to be higher.
08:43
None of this changes the fact that numbers are still higher than they were a decade ago.
08:50
The question is why?
08:52
We find that those numbers, as you mentioned, are probably unrepresented of the true cases.
08:58
With agencies like ours, we give women choice about whether they go to the police or not.
09:04
And because of the problems in our justice system and the delays and some of the mistrust,
09:08
we find that women don't want to report.
09:10
On the one hand, we do have the rise of online misogyny and in-cell culture, which is creating
09:16
a generation of young men who have a very polarised view of women and girls and the
09:22
role of women and girls in their lives.
09:25
We have to take into consideration we had Covid in the middle of that.
09:28
So in Covid, you're locked at home with your perpetrator.
09:33
So obviously there's going to be higher incidences because if you look at the patterns,
09:38
like when there's a big football event, incidents rise at Christmas.
09:43
Incidents rise because you're at home with that person.
09:45
Issues such as the cost of living crisis, growing poverty, financial pressures on families
09:53
and unstable communities because of the housing crisis.
09:57
There are all of these other contextual pressures on families.
10:02
But the rise in domestic abuse, specifically around power and control issues, is an attitudinal
10:08
problem among perpetrators.
10:12
There's also now, there's so many campaigns about recognising domestic abuse.
10:15
More people are coming forward and realise that they're actually in an abusive relationship.
10:18
The increasing awareness of domestic abuse means that those that are affected are able
10:23
to come forward and that will give an inflation in the figures.
10:26
But what it means is we're reaching those that are really in need that perhaps didn't
10:29
realise they were victims of abuse beforehand.
10:33
When it comes to domestic abuse, there are no easy answers.
10:38
The reason these numbers paint such a bleak picture for Kent is not because they rise
10:43
or fall, but because they count the darkest moments in someone's life.
10:49
But there's plenty they don't count.
10:52
They don't count the amount of support available, the number of people willing to listen, those
10:58
willing to learn and unlearn.
11:01
Kent may be facing an epidemic of domestic abuse.
11:06
The question now is how we're going to prevent it.
11:11
Just feeling like I was not alone was amazing.
11:14
Honestly, hearing those words, I believe you, changed everything for me, gave me a new lease
11:19
of life.
11:20
He doesn't hold the same power over me because I'm so much stronger now.
11:28
I want to speak, but I'm wondering how And I wonder since when was my voice a foreign
11:50
object in my mouth But what you're doing for me, I just wish
11:57
I could do I could do it for you
Recommended
11:16
|
Up next
Domestic abuse survivor shares her story
Peterborough Telegraph
16/04/2021
1:45
Domestic Abuse Campaigners outside Westminster
National World - LocalTV
14/02/2023
1:45
Domestic abuse by under 18s
Lancashire Post
09/03/2022
1:12
Domestic Abuse SOT
KentOnline / KMTV
19/11/2021
0:56
Homelessness on rise in Kent amid cost of living crisis
KentOnline / KMTV
01/08/2022
2:30
Kent charities call for a better support for domestic abuse victims
KentOnline / KMTV
20/11/2021
1:41
Signs of domestic abuse
Peterborough Telegraph
24/11/2020
45:48
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire S01E05 20th Anniversary
Top Gear Videos Clarkson, Hammond & May -
12/05/2018
45:40
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire S01E04 20th Anniversary
Top Gear Videos Clarkson, Hammond & May -
12/05/2018
47:10
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire S01E03 20th Anniversary
Top Gear Videos Clarkson, Hammond & May -
11/05/2018
15:15
TOP 5 NEW KILLER CLOWNS GET BEAT UP!! (CLOWN SHOT IN THE HEAD)
EloyMichael94978957
07/08/2017
2:29
Folkestone Emporium gives small businesses new home in old Wilko building
KentOnline / KMTV
today
0:30
Ramsgate Tunnel car blaze
KentOnline / KMTV
yesterday
27:53
The Kent Politics Show - June 27th 2025
KentOnline / KMTV
yesterday
27:06
Kent Tonight - Friday 27th June 2025
KentOnline / KMTV
yesterday
24:00
The Kent Politics Show - 19th June 2025
KentOnline / KMTV
yesterday
0:44
Charing Palace barn footage
KentOnline / KMTV
yesterday
0:28
Funnel cloud over Folkestone - that terrified mum thought was tornado
KentOnline / KMTV
yesterday
23:04
Podcast: Man jailed for life for murdering Tunbridge Wells grandfather Wayne Woodgate and dumping his body in woodland
KentOnline / KMTV
yesterday
6:45
KMTV Film Expert talks about armed forces week
KentOnline / KMTV
yesterday
24:00
BASSed in Kent - Steven Melia (Thursday 26th June 2025)
KentOnline / KMTV
yesterday
57:05
Kent Tonight - Thursday 26th June 2025
KentOnline / KMTV
2 days ago
0:29
Kent Police detective says Stephen Castle was probably the 'most dangerous criminal' he’d come across
KentOnline / KMTV
2 days ago
1:15
Ashford teen Lukas Kidney talks about proposed benefit cuts
KentOnline / KMTV
2 days ago
2:37
Medway Council second highest for yellow box fines in England
KentOnline / KMTV
2 days ago