Irish Daily Mirror - Wednesday, 21 October, 2010

Calls To Abuse Hotline Up After Fair City Plot

Luke Conlon

CALLS to domestic abuse charity AMEN have soared since the issue was faced on Fair City. In the RTE soap Suzanne has been physically and mentally abusing her husband Damien since she found out he slept with Neasa. The writers worked closely with AMEN developing the storyline and Niamh Farrell from the charity said that calls have increased She added: "The number of men contacting the charity for help have increased dramatically over the past couple of months - many factors have attributed to this and Fair City is one of them" Ms Farrell said Suzanne's behavior, as shocking as it may seem, is representative of a growing trend of male domestic abuse. Suzanne uses physical and psychological torment to manipulate Damien and in tomorrow night's episode she beats him again when he fails to buy "enough" food for dinner.

But recent figures illustrate that the behaviour shown by Suzanne is far from unique. In Ireland there are alarmingly high figures of domestic abuse and the incidents of men facing this problem is steadily rising A recent study show that 29% of women and 26% of men* suffer some form of domestic abuse, while 13% of women and 13% of men** suffer physical abuse Of those cases, one in three women report abuse to the Gardai (Irish police force) as opposed to only one in twenty men.

Ms Farrell says that almost all of the cases AMEN deals with report some form of psychological abuse But society's attitude toward male victims seems to prevent more men from coming forward. Ms Farrell said: "Male victims calling the helpline will relate stories of being dismissed, mocked and misunderstood by the various agencies of the State. "They are sometimes disbelieved by social workers, Gardai and the legal profession. "This is most evident when false allegations are made against men by their wives or partners. "They can lose contact with their children for long periods of time and this time can never be replaced."

Men are typically less likely to report their abuse for a number of reasons. Generally speaking, society has a problem understanding how a man can fall victim to abuse at the hands of his female partner. Furthermore, inequalities in the Family Law Courts and judicial system make domestic abuse towards men to be less likely to result in prosecution