Lockdown causes a big increase in abuse calls and fears of homicides

Imagine what life would be like if you are locked up with an aggressive, controlling, often violent person 24 hours a day with no possibility of escape.

That is the reality which many women are experiencing as a result of the coronavirus lockdown.

The charity Refuge says calls for help to the National Domestic Abuse Helpline shot up by 25 per cent after restrictions on people’s movements, the Stay At Home campaign, were introduced by the government.

One woman, Tara, who asked the media not to reveal her real name, said she had been suffering physical and mental abuse from her partner for six months and things became worse when the lockdown began.

To start, the abuse was subtle, “isolating me from my family and friends, controlling me, thinking I am cheating on him when I’m with him all the time”.

Then he deleted her social media accounts, stopped her from seeing her family, became verbally abusive, hitting her if she answered back. Said Tara: “It got so bad that I didn’t care if I didn’t wake up from the night before.”

EXIT BUTTON

Eventually, she escaped, fleeing to a women’s refuge in Wales, where she is being supported by a charity for young people and vulnerable women.

A high-profile campaigner, Rachel Williams, believes domestic violence and probably homicides will escalate as social distancing restrictions continue in the UK.

“For me the homicide rate is going to go through the roof and this is what we are bracing ourselves for,” she said.

Ms Williams suffered at the hands of her husband for 18 years. And when she told him she was leaving, he shot and wounded her with a sawn-off shotgun.

One effect of being locked in with your abuser could be that victims are unable or frightened to make an emergency phone call.

The National Domestic Abuse Helpline offers contacts through its website with a “quick exit” button, which ensures no record of the call is left on the phone.

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When the coronavirus pandemic stopped amputee Steve Watson from getting a prosthetic leg from the National Health Service, his wife made him one from items in their garden shed.

Steve fell and broke his leg badly in 2018. And after a series of operations, he agreed to have the lower part of his leg amputated. He was to be assessed for a prosthetic limb but the hospital appointment was cancelled when the virus hit.

Steve, from Shotley Bridge in County Durham, said his wife, Atchari, decided on the do-it-yourself approach.

“When I saw her rummaging around in the shed, I thought she was going to do the garden,” he said.

“The next thing, she had one of our son’s seaside buckets and an old piece of wood. Then she got a moon boot from when I had a cast on my leg and she screwed it to the wood. It worked, it’s absolutely brilliant.”

In what could be the understatement of the week, he added, “My wife is very practical; she can turn her hand to anything.”

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Rarely can so many TV sets have been turned on for so long and rarely can so many cries have been heard across the nation, “There’s nothing worth watching on the telly.”

However, one programme has emerged, which miraculously lightens the boredom and ennui of 24 hours per day within the same four walls.

The "Repair Shop" on BBC has become one of the unlikeliest TV hits of recent years, racing from a teatime slot with a bare one million viewers to a prime time position attracting an audience of 6.7 million.

The idea behind the show is so simple it sounds dull. People bring their dilapidated old possessions and heirlooms to a barn, where experts restore them.

The skill of the restorers, a woodworker, a metal man, a leather artist, a picture restorer, a clockwork expert, a ceramics lady, is breathtaking.

But it is the emotional baggage that accompanies the items that makes the show special.

Widower Geoff from Sunderland brought in his broken jukebox, which had played the first dance at his wedding many years ago.

When he returned to the barn and heard the song play once more on his beautifully refurbished machine, he was moved to tears.

And you can bet so were most of those 6.7 million watching at home.

The Guardian newspaper described "The Repair Shop" as “the most moving show on TV”, and celebrity polymath Stephen Fry called it “far and away the best programme on British television”. I am not about to disagree.

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The 60-year-old millionaire is getting married and throws a lavish reception. Male friends, jealous of his beautiful, 23-year-old bride, ask how he managed to make such a catch.

“Simple. I faked my age,” he said, “I told her I was 87.”

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