Domestic abuse: Could the system have done more to protect this woman?

“We are not doing enough to protect the 2 million victims of domestic violence across the UK”. A stark admission from the most senior police lead on domestic abuse.

The government insists forces treat it on a par with terrorism, but Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe accepts “if there were two million victims of terrorism, they would be getting a very different response”.

She says charge and conviction rates, at just six and five per cent, are unacceptably low and is pledging radical reform with a new joint justice plan with the Crown Prosecution Service due this spring.

In the latest in our series on domestic violence, the harrowing story of one woman who believes faster action by the police could have saved her from life-changing harm.

You may find this report distressing.