Guernsey domestic abuse survivor urges law change
- Published
There are calls for the strategy to be voted on before the end of the year
A domestic abuse survivor is supporting a move to make coercive control a criminal offence under Guernsey law.
Coercive control, an act or a pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation used to harm, punish, or frighten, is not a crime in the island.
However, making it an offence is being recommended in a report on updating the law due before the States this year.
Laura - not her real name - escaped from a coercive controlling relationship and wants it stopped.
She said she was still "amazed I escaped" four years ago.
"He got more and more abusive as the days went past, he was drugging me, keeping me up all night, getting progressively more insane in an attempt to frighten me," Laura said.
She said: "People doing that should not be allowed to get away with it. They shouldn't be allowed to walk around freely and do it to other people. They need to be stopped, right now."
No timeline
This week the States of Guernsey will debate the Government Work Plan, which includes the island's new Domestic Abuse Strategy.
Additional funding for the strategy has been requested, but there is no timeline for its implementation even if the funding is approved.
Deputy Yvonne Burford, who successfully campaigned for a sexual assault referral centre to be prioritised as part of the Government Work Plan, wants to see the new Domestic Abuse strategy debated by the States this year.
She said: "The domestic abuse strategy is drafted and therefore I'd hope it would come immediately forward after we've debated the Government Work Plan."
It is up to the Committee for Home Affairs when the policy is laid before the States.
When approached the committee did not comment on a timeline, but Domestic Abuse Strategy co-ordinator Fiona Richmond confirmed: "Amongst other measures, there will be a recommendation that coercive control should be criminalised."
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