Helping to stop domestic abuse is not easy, but it can be done

We’ve seen 115 cases of domestic abuse being reported already this financial year, against 166 for the whole of 2020/21. I said in a previous blog that it might seem odd to celebrate more cases being reported, but we know from national statistics that this is still just the tip of the iceberg.

Domestic abuse comes in many different shapes and forms, and we know that it takes vigilance, perseverance, time and effort from people across our teams to bring the perpetrators to justice, as well as giving victims a chance to retake control of their lives.

“Other residents reported that he was carrying out other threatening and intimidating behaviour, such as walking out at night with a head torch, shining lights into women’s windows”

Earlier this month, one of our anti-social behaviour officers provided supporting evidence on a case that involved coercive control – something that only became a publicly acknowledged offence in 2015.

The case was originally brought to our attention at a multi-agency risk assessment conference (MARAC) with the Newbury Domestic Abuse Policing Team and A2Dominion – the referral service for domestic abuse in West Berkshire, several years ago.

One of our residents was manipulating and controlling the everyday life of another of our residents. Behaviour included preventing her from seeing friends and family, taking control of her finances and making death threats towards her, making her frightened for the safety of her family. Towards the end of the relationship, he actually made her doubt her own sanity.

Other residents reported that he was carrying out other threatening and intimidating behaviour, such as walking out at night with a head torch, shining lights into women’s windows and loitering in communal spaces.

It was a complicated case which needed delicate handling, with details that were sensitive and emotive. Initially, we made our female resident safe, changing locks on the doors of her home and providing a high level of reassurance that action would be taken.

We also had to make a decision about how we could best support other women in our community and keep them safe, too. Initially, our anti-social behaviour officer worked to seek a legal civil injunction for anti-social behaviour to prevent our male resident from harassing his female neighbours.

Our officer gained the injunction, but in parallel, thanks to her involvement with MARAC, she also supported the police as they carried out separate investigations into our resident for reports of impersonating a police officer, harassment, public order offences, voyeurism and coercive control.

Over the next 18 months, during challenging coronavirus restrictions and due to personal reasons linked to the victim meant all engagement had to be carried out over the phone. This meant no emails, no texts, no face-to-face visits, but our officer continued to offer support. She gave the police witness statements and evidence and kept a highly vulnerable victim as positive as she could, ensuring that they felt able to continue with the high-stress situation of giving evidence.

“The accumulated actions of our male resident built up into a disturbing picture of abuse, which the judge overseeing the case deemed as ‘extremely serious’, and… that resident was convicted of harassment, public order offences and coercive control and was sentenced to 27 months in prison”

This is the first case for Sovereign where we’ve given evidence on coercive control. Although under the current legal framework it does not sit under Ground 7A of the Housing Act which lays out the conditions for anti-social behaviour. Reframing this is currently being considered by the government.

In this case, it was obvious that the female resident being victimised needed our support to speak up, to be believed, to take the situations they were reporting seriously.

The accumulated actions of our male resident built up into a disturbing picture of abuse, which the judge overseeing the case deemed as ‘extremely serious’, and, in October this year, that resident was convicted of harassment, public order offences and coercive control and was sentenced to 27 months in prison.

Ending domestic abuse is not a quick fix. Situations like the case described above take months and even years of focus, dedication and strong conviction to see through.

We want our customers and employees to know that they can turn to us for long-term support, any time of night or day, if they are experiencing something similar, simply by calling our team on 0300 5000 926 or by speaking to any one of our frontline employees.

It is only by uniting, by working collectively together, that we can end violence against women.

Sarah Andrews, regional housing manager, Sovereign