"It must be simply horrible to feel safer walking round the streets of St Helens at 3 in the morning because you don't want to go home since you are so terrified of being abused and assaulted there." So says Detective Inspector Jon Dawson. He heads St Helens police's Family Support Unit, a team who in part are charged with investigating harrowing beatings, both physically and mentally, that go on behind closed doors.

Victims are mostly women and children... sometimes men. The abuse can be physical and sexual... ongoing or hidden in the past.

The Family Support Unit's investigations aim to bring to justice the perpetrators of these crimes and break the grip of fear that suffocates the lives of the victims.

Suffering

To do this though, police need victims to make them aware of suffering. Figures released to the Star show the number of incidents of domestic violence reported last December compared to Dec 2002 jumped by 13 per cent, from 238 to 269.

And regionally there was a huge rise in the number of cases reported during December, on the back of a high profile publicity campaign by Merseyside Police.

Such attacks account for a fifth of all violent crime in St Helens, yet the real picture could still be obscured.

Det Insp Dawson says on average a victim is beaten 35 times before they confide in someone about their ordeal.

It is making them come forward sooner and ending the "abyss" of unreported attacks that remains crucial to police, so they can investigate the offenders.

Steps are already being taken to ensure more crimes are recorded and more offenders punished. When police are called to a scene of a domestic assault they have to take action, regardless of whether the victim wants them to.

Det Insp Dawson said: "If there is evidence of a crime a police officer has to take action. If they don't they have to explain to me why."

Police have a support 'house' in Haydock where victims can go to be interviewed, they also have strong links with the St Helens Domestic Violence Forum and Women's Aid.

"They provide lots of services, which we in St Helens would struggle without. They have two refuges for women who become homeless."

Their support, he says, provides the support and counselling service, which compliments officers who tackle the investigations.

He hopes the approach will give victims confidence to come forward: "Some victims see the abuse as a failure in the themselves when it isn't. Nobody should be subject to violence at anytime least of all by their chosen partner."

If you are a victim contact St Helens police's domestic violence unit on 01744 739939 or St Helens District Women's Aid on 01925 220541, there is also a drop-in centre at Hardshaw Street.