Strathclyde domestic abuse toll up by 28%

DOMESTIC abuse rose by more than a quarter over the festive period, police have revealed.

Strathclyde Police officers arrested 1,007 people during a five-week crackdown on violence in homes.

The Break the Circle of Violence campaign was aimed at encouraging victims, or anyone who knows a victim of domestic abuse, to report it.

Between 6 December and 9 January, officers attended 2,877 incidents of domestic abuse - a 27.6 per cent rise on the same period last year.

Chief Superintendent Bob Hamilton said: "We realise that incidents of domestic abuse are vastly under-reported and the aim of our campaign was to encourage victims, their friends, family or any other person who may know someone who is suffering domestic abuse to seek help and report it.

"We hope that this rise in the number of incidents reported over the festive period is due to increased confidence of domestic abuse victims to come forward, either to police officers or using our third party and remote reporting."

As part of the campaign, officers working in conjunction with the force's Domestic Abuse Task Force also targeted those offenders who pose the greatest risk to victims and their families, and warning them about their future behaviour.

They pursued them for other areas of criminality and prioritised any outstanding warrant or criminal inquiries.