According to Henley’s MP, Boris Johnson, the town has a ‘wholly deserved reputation…as the safest place in Britain’. Or it did have until the recent tragic murder of two women in nearby Highmoor Cross.
Johnson’s article in the Telegraph two days after the shooting expressed his belief that, ‘killings like these happen in America – not in Henley’.
Then reports came through that the police had arrested the estranged husband of one of the dead women. This suddenly put a completely different complexion on things, because the sad fact is that killings like these happen throughout the UK (and, indeed, throughout the world) on a regular basis. If you are a woman at the mercy of a violent partner, no place is safe unless it’s somewhere you are sure he can’t find you. Johannesburg, LA, Toxteth, Wyre Piddle or Highmoor Cross: all are equally unsafe for victims of domestic abuse. In Britain, the figures are sobering.
Domestic violence accounts for nearly a quarter of all recorded violent crime; one incident of domestic violence is reported to the police every minute, and on average, a woman will endure 35 attacks before she goes to the police. Every year around 150 people (120 women and 30 men) are killed by a current or former partner. On average, that’s two women a week. 8% of male murder victims and nearly 50% of female murder victims are killed by a partner or ex-partner.
When the Highmoor Cross news came through, I was reminded that it was almost exactly a year since members of the Board for Social Responsibility’s domestic abuse working group visited Henley Deanery Synod. This was to give a presentation as part of the awareness-raising programme following Diocesan Synod’s adoption of the Domestic Abuse Charter in March 2003. Our message, as usual, was ‘don’t ever think it couldn’t happen here’. Domestic violence occurs across society, regardless of age, race, wealth and geography. So yes, Boris, even in quiet leafy villages in beautiful parts of Oxfordshire, domestic abuse is real.
It is real in Christian homes and families too, which is another reason for ensuring that, as a church community, we are wellinformed about the causes, manifestations and effects of domestic abuse. Last October BSR ran a one-day introductory training event for concerned clergy and laity. This workshop is to be repeated on Tuesday 19 October at Diocesan Church House.
Representatives of a range of secular agencies will be present to share information and expertise, and workshops will focus on the theological, pastoral and spiritual issues that emerge as we work to combat domestic abuse.
Contact the BSR for details
Alison Webster is Diocesan social responsibility adviser
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