I found out today that a member of my family spent hours in the casualty department a few nights ago coz her partner of god knows how many years decided that he would beat her up.
He�s been accusing her of having an affair and all sorts and although they�re not together anymore he won�t leave the house that they both live in and basically she�s become a prisoner in her own home. He�s threatened to kill her, left suicide notes for the kids to find, hidden her keys from her so that she can�t go anywhere. And what can the �authorities� do about it�nothing because he has a right to be at the house.
She�s had to live with the fear of what he would do next.
Until the other night when he seems to have decided that hiding and spying on her was ok. And then he could jump out and attack her � kick her in the head so she needed her ear glued where he�d spilt it, hit her repeatedly so her head and arms are a mass of bruises and she�s wearing a sling the bruising is so bad. Oh, and it seems that its ok to punch your teenage son in the face because he�s trying to stop you from attacking his mum.
It makes me feel physically sick that someone could do that. I know domestic violence goes on..I�m not so na�ve to think that we live in a perfect world but you never expect things like this to happen in your own family.
What disgusts me the most though is the fact that it had to get so far before the authorities say its ok for her to lock him out of the house. Why the hell should it have gotten so far? Why should she and the kids have to endure that and feel scared in their own home? And it�s not even as if this hasn�t been going on for weeks and the police haven�t already been involved.
How can it be acceptable to allow someone to stay in a house that they are destroying by smashing things up (etc etc) and to terrorise their partner and children.
It�s a fucking disgrace and its things like this that knock a little bit more of my confidence in the human race. I like to think that on the whole people are good and decent, and I know for the majority of the population its true, but then there are these total scumbags who just do whatever the hell they feel like.