Domestic abuse charity ‘at breaking point’

A charity which supports victims of domestic abuse has said a lack of government funding has stretched its resources to breaking point.

Women’s Aid Federation Northern Ireland will today launch a hard-hitting campaign calling on the government to ‘Unlock the Funding’.

This week the PSNI warned of a potential spike in domestic abuse over Christmas – with statistics revealing officers dealt with a call every 16 minutes last December and January.

Police said last Christmas Day alone, 97 incidents and 65 crimes were reported to them.

On New Year’s Day 2022, police received reports of 161 incidents and 100 crimes of domestic abuse, an increase of 17 on the year before.

According to police, from April 2021 to March 2022 women and girls made up 78% of all victims of sexual crimes, 68% of domestic abuse, 64% of harassment and as of April 2022, 95% of stalking crimes.

Between 2017 and 2021, 34 women and girls were killed by men across Northern Ireland.

Women’s Aid said its funding difficulty is being made worse by the lack of a functioning Stormont executive.

Chief executive Sarah Mason said Northern Ireland was already significantly behind England and Wales when it came to funding, but the cost-of-living crisis is making this disparity even more stark.

She said: “Our campaign uses incredibly emotive language and poignant imagery and if this is uncomfortable for some people then we apologise.

“But the reality is that women are being murdered in Northern Ireland as we wait for the government to provide the necessary level of funding to tackle this epidemic affecting our society.

“The cost-of-living crisis is having a profound impact on women living with abusive partners.

“We saw during the pandemic how lockdown was often trapping women with their abusers, now as the strain on household expenses continues to spiral, many female victims of violence simply don’t have the financial means to escape the abuse.”

She continued: “Earlier this year in the Republic of Ireland, the government announced a €363m (£313m) strategy to tackle gender-based violence. Funding of this level has never been released here in Northern Ireland."