Third of NE young women in controlling relationship
A Newcastle teenager says schools must do more to stop controlling relationships being normal.
It’s as new research shows over a third of 16 -24 year old women from the North East have been in a coercive relationship.
One in five realised they were in a controlling relationship once the relationship was over.
A new domestic abuse law, the coercive control offence, which carried a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment, came into effect in December to address this growing issue, yet more than two thirds of people in Newcastle do not know what the term Coercive Control means.
Laura Christer, 19, from Newcastle, was first in a controlling relationship at the age of 14, but says all of her friends thought that behaviour such as checking phones, expecting sex, controlling what to wear, where to go and who to see was normal for relationships.
She’s now working with West End Women and Girls, helping young women understand the signs and how to avoid a toxic relationship.
Laura tells us she thinks that safer relationship lessons should be part of the curriculum. She said:
“I never let me mam know and my friends just though it was normal too. None of us recognised it as abusive. It took a while for it to sink in.”
“My first partner had threatened to kill himself if I was to end the relationship. Obviously it upset me but I never thought how bad it was or how bad it could have been. If I hadn’t have come to the centre then I could’ve constantly been in those relationships and repeating that pattern. I don’t know where I’d be now if I hadn’t of gotten out of it.”
Sophie Murtha, 19, from Newcastle is working alongside Laura after she experienced a controlling relationship herself. She said:
“The safer lives course should be in every single school across Britain, hopefully internationally, so that it’s taught from a young age and you’re getting the right support.”
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