Peterborough Women's Aid expecting an increase in people needing support for domestic abuse
Cambridgeshire police is seeing a rise in abuse reports
Last updated 2nd Jan 2025
Peterborough Women's Aid, which supports victims of domestic abuse says it's expecting more victims to come forward for help in 2025.
Cambridgeshire Police data shows out of more than 13 thousand domestic abuse related incidents recorded between January and October last year, 72 per cent involved women.
That's an increase of 2.7 per cent on the previous year.
We've spoke to Mandy Geraghty from Peterborough Women's Aid about the issue.
A lot of women will stay over the Christmas period for the sake of their children and decide to make that move afterwards
She told us: "The demands that are made on victims in terms of everything being right - in terms of pressure - in terms of control."
"A lot of women will stay over the Christmas period for the sake of their children and decide to make that move afterwards."
"There is sometimes an assumption that we only work with victims if they're planning to leave the abusive relationship."
"That's not true."
"We work with victims who might never leave that relationship but they just want that support in terms of making sure they're safe."
She also told us about how female victims may choose to leave an abusive relationship.
If it's a planned escape women are more likely to stay away from the perpetrator for good
"It's really practical things like - having a different mobile phone - having all their documents in place - ready to go."
"We find if it's a planned escape women are more likely to stay away from the perpetrator for good".
We also spoke to Alicia Yorke Cambridgeshire police's domestic abuse tactical lead.
She says: "If some one hears this and thinks - my friend suffered that - it may not have been reported to us."
"I would encourage anyone who knows of violence or domestic abuse going on to report it to us whatever time of year it is."