The domestic abuse pandemic that is being hidden behind Covid-19

It was the government announcement of a national lockdown in March 2020 that caused domestic abuse helplines across the country to prepare for the number of calls to be drastically increased. A copious amount of workers were furloughed or instructed to work from home leaving an abundance of men and women confined into the same house as their abuser - with few escape routes. Women’s aid have labelled the period as “A Perfect Storm”. The unbearably shrill sound of the phone ringing haunted the helpline workers as they knew it was another victim in danger.

One of the charities helping these women is Refuge: who support over 6,000 women and children on any given day. The charity runs the freephone National Domestic Abuse Helpline (0808 2000 247) which is female-operated and can be contacted 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There was a 700% increase in the number of visits to the National Domestic Abuse Helpline website in April to June 2020, compared with the first three months of the year. An independent domestic violence advisor at Refuge, Diane Brown, says:

“During the lockdown the desperation in the caller was magnified. A good way of describing it is domestic abuse on steroids, the lockdown was an abuser's lottery win. We also had callers who have been 'quietly suffering' for years, but the lockdown brought their abusive situation to a head and they got to the point of reaching out for support. Had the lockdown never happened, would they have kept quiet and remained in the abusive relationship? I ask myself often.”

A call to the police involving domestic violence was made every 30 seconds in the first seven weeks of the first national lockdown. “The helpline can be constant. It is sad to hear such suffering and I feel a very strong desire to help in any way I can.”

The intensity of lockdown prompted one survivor, Lily Ho , to acknowledge that she was a victim of domestic abuse, by her boyfriend for six months. “It helped me realise the tactics he used in the past, even if were not planned in his mind, were still abusive and he was still an abuser. There was a time just before the lockdown was announced when he angrily hit his car window to intimidate me and it shattered everywhere. He would have multiple angry outrages and wouldn’t let me leave the room. He would pin me down and grab my throat until it bruised to try to ‘settle me down’”.

Not only did domestic violence figures rise during the pandemic, the type of abuse was intensified. Michelle Blunsom, who runs the East Surrey Domestic Abuse Service, told Spectator that she observed a deviation in the type of abuse: perpetrators who haven’t used physical violence before began to during lockdown. “There was a worrying increase around head and face injuries. They were not bothering to do “zoning” any more because no one was going to see the women.”

On top of this, it became increasingly difficult to get through to women during lockdown as they are rarely alone. ’We know that survivors really benefit from being directly asked if they are being abused,’ Michelle says. ‘But now, no professional can directly ask. I tell my colleagues that if they are talking to abused women, they should assume that the perpetrator is there and that the call is taking place on speakerphone.”

Even if the victims were not living with their perpetrator - they still found ways to incite fear. Samantha left her abusive partner a month before lockdown was announced and was forced to deal with repercussions, “On multiple occasions he would arrive unannounced and stand outside the house making threatening gestures. I was terrified in my own home. It was like I had no place to go to feel safe.”

Although the full effect of the pandemic is yet to be revealed, Karen Ingala-Smith, the founder of the pioneering project ‘Counting Dead Women’, collated figures from social media contacts and internet searches to uncover that during the first week of lockdown ten women were killed; this is far higher than the average rate for March. In April, a further eight women were identified as having been murdered, with another three suspected cases. Observing the same time frame over the last 10 years: there was an average of five deaths.

It is vital to recognise that domestic abuse does not consist entirely of physical violence; this can make it difficult for people to comprehend they’re in an abusive situation. It can include repeated patterns of abusive behaviour to maintain power and authority in a relationship. Jessica Morris, a domestic violence survivor, says that often, the abuse would be camouflaged as a joke.

“The physical stuff wasn’t how it is portrayed in movies, he wouldn’t openly lose his temper and hit me. He would do it and say it’s only a joke you can take it but it wasn’t a joke - it was really bad and illegal.”

‘Love bombing’ is a prevalent manipulation technique used by abusers to overwhelm you with kind gestures as a false vaunt of love. Jessica was a victim of this hoax: “At the beginning of the relationship he was overly spoiling me and buying me things and saying lovely things to me so I took that as love but you get older and learn that's not what it is as it's completely fake but you learn some lessons the hard way.”

“He trained me to tell him every little detail of my life, if I wanted to go somewhere the following week I would have to tell him in advance and if I went somewhere last minute he would say 'where are you going, why didn’t you tell me this it is making me so worried about you’. He was trying to make it seem like it was the best thing for me when it wasn’t - it was just a way of controlling me. It’s very easy for them to guilt trip you and force you into things that you don’t want to do so obviously the sexual side of things is affected by that and that only started a couple of months in but the physical harm was a year into the relationship. It was just grim.”

During lockdown, Refuge saw more women showing a remarkable tenacity in the face of their abuser as they fled their relationship for refuge. Heather Brennan, project manager of IDAS - the largest specialist domestic abuse charity in Yorkshire, says, “The refuge is only a small eight bed facility and we had a higher number of referrals into refuge during lockdown. We managed to house 24 women and families over the Covid-19 period - this time last year it was less than half of that number that we had to accommodate and support.”

Albeit calls to domestic abuse helplines were exacerbated during the global pandemic: it is not only a lockdown problem. Women’s Aid reported that it is largely expected that the demand in calls would increase after lockdown measures eased. If you or anyone you know is a victim of domestic abuse: call 999 if you are in immediate danger or visit the Refuge website.

Refuge, 24 hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline 0808 2000 247

IDAS - 0808 808 2241 (Sheffield)