Speaking at a remote meeting on Wednesday evening, Fran O’Boyle, Women’s Aid ABCLN, was addressing the impact on children and young people.
Fran said that despite being upstairs, children can still overhear raised voices scaring them about what is going on in their home. For some, school becomes “predominantly their safe place”.
She went on to say children and young people can try to stop the abuse. She spoke of two boys, aged eight and ten years, who talked about standing together in front of their mother in their belief they would be “bigger and stronger” together, and teenagers who intervene to try to protect their mother.