Combat and violence at home linked

Published on 25/07/2012 01:17

ONE in eight soldiers has attacked someone after coming home from fighting, a new study shows.

The Kings Centre for Military Health Research spoke to 13,000 Iraq and Afghanistan army veterans and said it had identified a clear link between combat and trauma, and violence at home, often directed at their partners.

Study author Dr Deirdre MacManus said: “The association between performing a combat role and being exposed to combat, and subsequent violence on return from deployment, is about two-fold.

“We also saw that soldiers who had seen more than one traumatic event were more likely to report being violent.”

Earlier this month ex-soldier Aaron Wilkinson, 24, who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress was jailed for shooting his landlady dead, just months after he had returned from serving in Afghanistan.