EXCLUSIVE: Thousands of domestic abuse victims are North East children
Since 2019, over 8-thousand domestic abuse victims across the North East, County Durham and Teesside are children
Hits Radio North East can exclusively reveal that over 8-thousand (8,395) domestic abuse victims across the North East, County Durham and Teesside are in fact children.
Statistics from 2019 to the start of this year, show they are all aged between 16 to 18 years old.
15-year-old Holly Newton was stabbed to death in Hexham by Logan MacPhail in January 2023, after he would not accept that their 18-month relationship was over.
We have shown these figures to her mum - Micala Trussler.
She has been campaigning for the age a person can be legally recognised as a domestic abuse victim to be lowered.
Currently under UK law, both the abuser and the victim must be over 16, for it to be considered a domestic abuse crime.
Holly Mum, Micala, said: "I don’t think I am shocked to be honest. This is happening everyday and it’s really sad.
"It is really, really high but honestly, it’s not a surprise because it’s almost like the norm now."
"We need to crackdown and do something about it."
She continued to say: "I think it’s upsetting because there’s so many children under-16 in a relationship and they know that they’re in an abusive relationship.
"But either they don’t know what abuse is, or they know that they can’t be a victim of domestic abuse, so then they just feel like they don’t know where to go for support."
"That is the reality of today."
She said: "I don’t think it’s taken seriously enough. I think there’s so many victims that just hide away and don’t have the help they deserve.
"For as long as we’re not accepting that under-16s can be victims of domestic abuse, we’re not safeguarding children and that’s what we should be doing.
"It's really important that the age is lowered."