Letter: ​I am an elderly victim of verbal abuse so I commend judge who jailed man who swore at and insulted his wife

I read with interest the front page of your newspaper dated Tuesday 25th February ‘A man who treated wife 'like a servant' jailed for six months and ordered to pay own costs’.

I commend the lady in question for bringing her case of domestic abuse behaviour by her husband, particularly for being treated as a servant, for the swearing and name calling, which became intolerable.

As I write, I can relate to all of this. I have not brought my case to court, although I have been going through a ‘divorce’.

I am now aged over 80 and for many years I have suffered similar situations to your report. I worked – wages kept, housekeeping and all other outlays. While my husband did not have a drink problem, it was a violent temper that at times left me scared for my safety. Swearing, name calling: f****** b****** f****** c***. You name it.

I was left crying and emotionally upset. I suffered extreme abuse and had to call on the PSNI on different occasions.

Now I want to commend the judge Alistair Devlin who handled this case.

I was relieved that at last cases of this nature should come before the court – the assembly I know are dealing with and have passed domestic abuse to some degree, but seemingly always on rape/sexual abuse/hitting out, and injuries caused by violence, leading to loss of life, which is good. But let’s not forget as this case reads, ‘behaviour not acceptable’, through swearing, name calling, being treated as a servant which can be the commencement of injuries, violence, etc also leading to loss of life.

Let’s hope that cases like this can be included in the Stormont paper.

I would appreciate it if you could print my letter, because my situation is similar to that reported in the court case in News Letter, but meantime keep my name, address and details confidential.

I just felt I had to commend Judge Devlin for the very effective and proper way he dealt with this situation and for the lady who brought her case.

The name and an address in Northern Ireland were supplied to the editor in this hand-written letter