Police on Skye take to Twitter to encourage domestic abuse victim

Police on Skye have taken to Twitter in order to encourage a victim of domestic abuse to come forward.

In a series of tweets, the local authorities call for a young woman to tell officers if she is being abused, as well as offering advice.

Styled as an open letter, it begins: “A letter to a young woman in #Skye. We know you follow this account and want you to see this. We’ve told you previously that we think you are at risk of domestic abuse from your partner.

The officer in charge of the social media account then writes: “We want to help you and are doing lots with other agencies to try to keep you safe.

“You might not see us, you might not even like us being involved but we are always thinking about how we can help you.

“Your family and friends have told you they think you are in danger - they support you and want you to be safe.”

A later tweet adds: “We think he’s probably told you, ‘It won’t happen again’, ‘I’m sorry”, ‘I’ll change’, he’s maybe even told you that it’s your fault - IT’S NOT.”

The Twitter thread ends with the relevant contact details.

Police insist the tweets were not directed at a specific person, but are rather a general attempt to have anyone in the area who is a victim to consider coming forward.

The tweets by Lochaber & Skye Police were praised by Scottish Women’s Aid, with chief executive Marsha Scott calling it a “great, creative use of social media”.