Sustained and strategic investment needed to help women feel safe, says Wiltshire charity
It's after the Angiolini Inquiry revealed Violence Against Women and Girls isn't given as much backing as other crimes
Last updated 2nd Dec 2025
Wiltshire's domestic violence charity is calling for sustained and strategic investment to help prevent violence against women (VAWG).
FearFree has told Greatest Hits Radio that it's unacceptable that women should need to change their behaviours in order to feel safe in public spaces, with CEO Debbie Beadle telling us that women are having to consider where they walk at night, judge those walking towards them and wondering if they might be a threat.
It's after the Angiolini Inquiry, commissioned to investigate how off-duty police officer, Wayne Couzens was able to abduct, rape and murder Sarah Everard in 2021, revealed in its latest report that VAWG isn't given the same level of backing as other crimes, despite being considered a national threat since 2023.
The report said that women "deserve to feel safer".
"Our organisation shouldn't need to exist"
Ms Beadle said she feels there is a still "a long way to go" before women can walk out of their homes without feeling threatened.
She also told us more needs to be done.
"Organisations like ours should not need to exist," she said. "The Government has set the line in the sand about halving violence against woman and girls, but we're yet to really see the commitment to that in terms of funding."
Ms Beadle said it's critical that misogynistic and harmful behaviour towards women isn't tolerated and than action is taken, rather than brushing something off as someone being "a bit weird".
She said: "It really needs a real strategic, targeted, consistent approach for it to be challenged because otherwise a scattergun approach is not going to cut it and women aren't going to feel that they're not going to see the difference."
The postcode lottery for support and education
Ms Beadle added that it can be a "postcode lottery" for support services, saying some police forces may prioritise VAWG more heavily than others.
"It takes quite a long time sometimes messaging to get out there. You know this needs a consistent sustained approach both in messaging and what we're seeing in services," she said, adding that it's crucial that funding allows education to be the start point of prevention.
"Some schools are doing some fantastic work around this, you know, raising awareness about violence both for young boys, but also young girls, what healthy relationships are. But again, it depends what school you're going to," Ms Beadle said.
She wants the Government to lead a "targeted, sustained and consistent" movement to ensure the message is heard and that people know how to behave, where to go for help and to feel safe.