Increase in reported cases of domestic violence is 'good'

More than 370 complaints of violence have come to the notice of Consett and Stanley police so far this year, compared to 510 for the whole of last year.

Officers now expect reported incidents for the whole year to top 700 in a district which has a population of just 88,000.

With reported incidents simply the tip of the domestic violence iceberg, analysts estimate that it could occur in as many as 10,000 of the district's 40,000 homes.

Now, Derwentside's biggest employer has become the first in the area to adopt an anti-domestic violence policy for its staff.

The council has appointed managers for the 750-strong workforce to contact if they are worried about the problem, and want members of the public to contact them with any concerns.

The authority is the second employer to adopt anti-violence schemes in County Durham. The first was the Walkers Crisps factory, in Peterlee, late last year.

Principal housing manager at Derwentside District Council, Shelagh McGinn, stressed that the council was not merely interested in handing over keys to new council houses to members of the public who were suffering abuse.

She said: "We want to raise awareness of the whole problem and want people, men, women, children, anyone who is suffering from this to call us.

"We will be able to refer them to people who can help.

"Official figures nationally show that domestic violence affects one in four, but that could be just the tip of the iceberg."

Domestic violence coordinator at Derwentside police, PC Steve Smith, explained that it was actually good news that the number of incidents of reported crimes was going up.

He said: "It does not indicate an increase in incidents of the actual crime, but that victims are actually coming forward.

"Our figures show that 40 per cent of all those crimes were repeat offences. We want to either maintain or reduce that number.

"The other target we want to increase is the number of arrests in incidents where we have that power."