'It's scarred me, just you can't see my scars' - Wearside woman speaks about abusive relationship

A woman from the North East says the domestic abuse she suffered has scarred her even though she wasn't subjected to physical violence.

Claire, not her real name, is sharing her experience on the day the National Policing Statement for Violence Against Women and Girls shows nearly 3,000 crimes are recorded every day.

She told ITV Tyne Tees: "To a certain extent I'm thankful that I wasn't subjected to violence but on the other hand the mental abuse, it's scarred me, just you can't see my scars."

Claire hopes speaking about her experience in an abusive relationship helps even one other person spot the early signs and seek help.

"To people outside of the relationship the perpetrator is very charming and comes across as very loveable, the perfect partner," she explained.

"But being out in a crowd, with friends, with family, being in a conversation and holding hands, you feel that squeeze and it makes you think, oh no, I've said something wrong I know what's going to happen when I get home. The barrage of abuse would start."More than one million violent crimes against women and girls were recorded by police in 2022/23, according to the report by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing.

Such crimes accounted for nearly 20% of all police-recorded crimes excluding fraud in England and Wales between April 2022 and March 2023.

Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth, from the College of Policing, said the figures were 'staggering'. Adding, the criminal justice system was 'under-performing for victims', with the report stating violence against women and girls was at such a scale 'it cannot be addressed through law enforcement alone'.

In Sunderland many victims of abuse turn to Wearside Women in Need for help.Emma Duffy, project development officer at the charity welcomed the recommendations as promising.

"Whatever's been happening for the last 40 years, unfortunately hasn't been decreasing it at the rate we would want and we need to stop looking at violence against women and girls, as it says in the report, as if it's inevitable," she said. "We can prevent this, we can create a zero tolerance approach and for that we need a lot of people to do so and help us do that."

Senior police officers are calling for government intervention in the “overwhelmed” criminal justice system.

They want to see the creation of a National Centre for Public Protection to support police forces with specialist knowledge and training.

Change like this is needed, according the charity which sees a rise in victims coming for help every year.

Violence against women and girls is now officially classed as a national threat.