Help is at hand
Police report.
Ealing Borough Police Officers from the Community Safety Unit (CSU) targeted domestic violence offenders, making 12 arrests across Ealing Borough on 7th December 2004.
Twenty officers from the Community Safety Unit took part in Operation Athena, a London-wide initiative to combat and raise awareness of domestic violence, arresting suspects for a variety of crimes including common assault, criminal damage, threats to kill, and ABH.
Domestic violence is an offence that cuts through all socio-economic groups, ages and backgrounds. The suspects arrested in yesterday's operation come from a variety of positions in life, and a range of occupations.
Domestic violence continues to be a high volume and serious crime, but as with hate crime, often it goes underreported. Ealing Borough's community Safety Unit in partnership with the Crown Prosecution Service has a positive charge policy on offenders of domestic violence and actively encourages victims to report incidents, which will help to alleviate repeat victimisation. Ealing police's community safety unit is currently one of the busiest in London, and have charged or issued cautions to 315 offenders (as at end of November 04).
The aim of the Community Safety Unit is to investigate the incident and identify, arrest and prosecute the perpetrator. Where a criminal prosecution of a perpetrator is inappropriate, we will identify and pursue alternative courses of action in consultation with our partner agencies to stop the violence and make victims and their children safer. The crime of domestic violence ranges from emotional abuse, controlling your partner's finances and social life, including cutting them off from family and friends to rape and physical assault. While the police provide an intervention role, the real help is behind the scenes from the many voluntary organisations and, to some extent, the local solicitors firms that are experienced in domestic violence matters. A domestic advocacy project between police and local organisations has been set up in Hanwell, and has an Adult Advocate and a Children's advocate, who assists children between 5 & 14 years of age.
Detective inspector Graham Hamilton of the Community Safety Unit, Ealing Borough Police says:
�It is imperative that abusers of hate and domestic violence crimes realise that what they are doing is wrong, is criminal and that the Ealing Borough Police will act to stop this.
We understand how distressing it is if the person you love subjects you to physical and psychological abuse, and how hard it is to report them to the police. We are now able to take action against offenders even without the support of the victim. Abusers need to realise that the Metropolitan Police are making it harder for them to hide their crimes behind the closed doors of the home.
We want to encourage victims to come forward and have confidence that police will deal with all cases sensitively and for abusers to know that their partner's silence no longer protects them and that we can and will take action."
Your friend or colleague could be abusing his or her partner.
Why are you tolerating this?
Report it to the police. You could save their life.
Contact numbers
Ealing Borough Police Community Safety Unit can be contacted on Tel: 0208-246-9617
Always Dial 999 in an emergency.
ManKind 0148-039-6500 (11am � 11pm)
(Helps Male victims of Domestic Violence)
(Provides safe temporary accommodation for Asian women and their children)
(For lesbians and gay men who are experiencing domestic violence)
Childline 0800 1111
December 13, 2004
| Related links |
|
Did you witness August attack outside Westway cars in Abbey Parade? Vicious attack in Horsenden Lane Signs of trouble for local burglars International Vice Ring based in Acton Police release e-fit after attacks in Acton Get weekly e-mails on news in Ealing
|