Tricia Bernal, whose daughter was murdered by an ex-boyfriend, looks across a line of silhouettes on Potter's Field in London, representing the death toll taken by domestic violence. Credit: Johnny Green / PA Images
“When the police told me they wouldn’t charge my ex, I felt like there was no justice for women,” Naomi* explains.
Like most survivors of domestic abuse, 31-year-old Naomi didn’t go to the police the first time her boyfriend kicked her. She didn”t go to the police the first time he broke her finger, the first time he punched her, the first time he tried to strangle her. Only after she found the courage to leave him, and had begun to process the trauma of enduring 18 months of emotional and physical abuse, did she turn to the police and ask for justice.
