In July 2016, Lance Hart brutally shot dead his wife Claire, 50 years old and his only daughter, Charlotte, 19 years old in a leisure centre car park, in Lincolnshire. He then turned the gun on himself.

There are many myths surrounding Domestic Abuse and its causes. Here are just a few that have been highlighted by our Family team in support of the #16DaysofAction campaign.

In March 2016, the Home Office, published its 2016-20 Violence against Women and Girls strategy. Following this, the Government stated that they would dedicate £80 million funding, to provide core support to refuges and other accommodation-based services. This money was also intended for rape support centres and national helplines. In the spring budget of 2017, a further £20 million was announced to be included towards the initial figure.

Natalie Hemming was a married 31 year old mother-of-three, when she was murdered in May 2016 by her husband, Paul Hemming. The initial report of concern for Natalie was made to the Police by her mother, who reported her missing on the 3rd May 2016. Unfortunately, this report came too late to help Natalie as it was later found that Paul Hemming, had brutally murdered Natalie in their home in Milton Keynes two days prior to the call.

Domestic abuse, was once seen as a gender-specific offence committed by males towards females. From as early as the mid 1800’s, the law deemed it a husband’s acceptable right to exert control over his wife, through the use of physical abuse.

Over the last 18 years, the government has debated and discussed the increasing social problem of domestic abuse within the UK and reinforced the provisions available to law enforcement agencies. A the beginning of the 1990’s the Home Office took an approach to address and develop policy on domestic violence at a National and Multi-agency level. By 2003, numerous policy documents surrounding domestic abuse and the increase in reports had been published and presented to the government. They reacted to these findings by proposing a strategy tackling prevention, protection and justice for victims of domestic abuse; supporting victims to rebuild their lives.

£19 million funding has been granted by the Government to expand support for survivors of domestic abuse services across England. This funding is to help survivors of abuse, and will go towards the provision of refuge beds, education and life skills training. Councils in England that are working with domestic abuse support charities will be able to bid for a share of funding, to help support victims in their local areas.

In 12 months to the end of March 2017, there were 1.9 million adults in England and Wales, between 16 and 59 years old who reported domestic abuse. The Office of National Statistics tells us that this equates to 1.2 million survivors being female and 0.7 million survivors are male. Even though domestic abuse occurs in all genders, there is still a disproportionate number who are female and the Government recognises that the most severe forms of domestic abuse is perpetrated against females. v