Lid lifted on scale of domestic violence

By CATHERINE MASTERS

A report giving a shocking snapshot of domestic violence in Auckland says people have no idea of the magnitude of the violence happening in their own neighbourhoods.

The Domestic Violence Centre studied a sample of 100 of its staff's 614 callouts by central Auckland police from July last year to June this year.

Of the 100 cases, 97 of the offenders were male, and of the victims 96 were women.

Pregnant women were often hit in the stomach, and in most cases children were present and some were also assaulted, the report found.

The report's author, and manager of the centre, Jane Drumm, said: "Much of this abuse seems more like torture, cruelty for the pleasure of it, calculated to inflict the most pain and humiliation."

Seventeen of the victims were threatened with death, 18 were kicked, 38 were punched, 24 had hands placed around their throat and were choked. Weapons were involved in 19 cases.

More than half were assaulted in the head. Six of 24 women assaulted in the abdominal area were pregnant. Four had babies under six months and two mothers with infants aged six to 12 months were holding their babies during the assault.

Seven women had bones broken.

Twelve of the 96 women were assaulted despite having had protection orders issued against their partners.

In 71 incidents, a total of 134 children aged from just weeks to over 11 years were present and saw what happened.

"Many children watched, screaming with terror.

"Some tried to hide, some ran outside or to neighbours.

"One seven-year-old boy was very upset as he thought the assault on his mother was his fault because he was naughty and didn't want to go to school."

In three of the instances, the offender took the baby. In one case, a woman's head was bashed through a wall while she was holding her baby.

A threat was made to kill three children by a woman's former partner who had previously attempted to kill his toddler son by stabbing him and had threatened to blow up the house.

Five children tried to help their mothers. In one case, a boy tried to intervene and was punched while in another case a boy fetched a baseball bat.

In yet another case, a father threatened to kill his three-year-old after cutting the mother.

The woman fled and was dragged back into the house by her hair.

The report was presented to the Domestic Violence Centre's annual general meeting last night.

The centre receives an average of 79 referrals from police every week.

Ms Drumm said the number of Maori and Pacific Island victims was disproportionately high for central Auckland.

"This is the day-to-day reality of life in Auckland for some families," she said.

"Agencies deal with this as best they can in a fragmented way but the rest of the community has no idea of the magnitude of the violence happening in their own neighbourhoods." It found out only when victims died.

Graham Barnes, the centre's education coordinator, said that in the past 30 years social services had addressed domestic violence and child abuse as separate problems.

"This needs to change. A growing body of research suggests that spouse abuse and child abuse are linked, with each being a strong predictor of each other."

Herald Online feature: violence at home

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