Our thanks to John for this. Good to see the story making it into the Daily Mail, even if the weasel words of a Northumbria Police spokesman, at the end of the piece, are shameful. I’ve added a few comments, in brackets:
A Northumbria police spokesman said they would consider the feedback they had received from the campaign. (… and then ignore it, as always. What else would we expect with a particularly evil feminist, Vera Baird QC, as your PPC?)
He said: ‘Coercive control is a recently recognised form of domestic abuse and is used by perpetrators to control every part of someone’s life, it can be financial control, constant criticism, isolation from family and friends.
‘The offence isn’t limited to just one gender or sexual orientation, anyone can be a victim of coercive control. (So far so good… this can’t last…)
‘Our initial focus, so far, has mainly (solely) been on women as the victims of this offence (… ‘so far’… so when will the focus go on to male victims, or lesbian victims?) – as in the vast majority of cases where domestic abuse is reported to the police – the victims are women. (The reasons for this are well understood, reports to the police are no reflection of the proportion of victims who are male – generally estimated to be in the region 40% – 60%.)
‘That said, we do acknowledge there are male victims out there (Very good of you! A few across the whole of Northumbria, maybe? No. There are MANY of them. Will your recognition ever translate into support for them?) and would encourage anyone who suffers domestic violence to contact police and seek help and support.’
