9th December 2021
Sharon Baker is a Chief Inspector who has spoken out powerfully about her own experience of domestic abuse whilst a police officer, explaining that her body armour and rank, which normally offer an element of ‘strength’, did nothing to protect her from controlling and coercive behaviour.
9th December 2021
I thought the worst had passed yet now I’ve spent years dealing with post-separation economic abuse.
I was always financially independent but now I am in debt. I have no control over my money as I face a System which legitimises and perpetuates the ongoing control he has to ruin me financially and any future life chances which our children have.
I remember he told me “with me you will have everything - without me you will have nothing”. Never did I imagine that our Civil Courts could enable him to try play this out.
7th December 2021
No questions asked. What about the burn on my hand? The missing hair? The teeth? I waited to be asked. Ask me. Ask me. Ask me. I’d tell her. I’d tell them everything. Look at the burn. Ask me about it. Ask.
Recently I read Roddy Doyle’s book The Woman Who Walked into Doors. I won’t spoil the book for anyone, but this section in particular has stayed with me. It rings true to my work as an Independent Domestic Abuse Advocate (Idaa). The people I worked with often wanted to be asked, and for their answers to be heard.
15th October 2021
Can you tell us a bit about your work outside of being a SafeLives associate?
4th October 2021
‘I just want us to be a nice family’
What does good look like in terms of the response to domestic abuse, so prevalent in people’s minds during Covid, and so prevalent behind closed doors all across the UK, before during and after Covid? What does it look like if you’re a survivor, but no one has asked you? If you hold local budgets, juggling multiple decisions and limited funding? If you’re a frontline practitioner, trying to battle gaps and issues in the system for your clients?
