New West Mercia Police roles after rise in violence against women

Det Ch Insp Callie Bradley said West Mercia Police will create five new specialist roles

Five new specialist police roles are to be created by West Mercia Police after a rise in violence against women and girls saw nearly 49,000 reported cases in three years.

The 2019-2022 figures cover Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

They show an 18% increase year-on-year and include 998 reports involving schools and colleges.

The new roles will see the officers work with schools and hard-to-reach communities.

Det Ch Insp Callie Bradley said the force expected them to lead to an even higher number of offences being reported.

Sue Coleman, from West Mercia Women's Aid, said the charity wanted to see more changes in society to cut violence against women and girls

West Mercia Women's Aid has called for major changes in attitude in society to stop the figures from rising further.

"We need a much stronger voice that says it's completely unacceptable," chief executive Sue Coleman said.

One woman, who the BBC is not naming, was in an abusive relationship for 10 years and said she wanted to encourage other women to speak out.

"The more people that come forward, the more we will make changes as well and I'm determined to help others not go through what I have done in my life," she said.

The woman was helped by Women's Aid, which is marking its 40ths anniversary, but Ms Coleman said it was not a year for celebrations.

"All of us would rather that we weren't needed to do this work and we could do something else," she said.

"After 40 years, surely something should have changed and it clearly hasn't."

If you've been affected by issues in this report there is help and advice at BBC Action Line.