A Newport lady who has her own experience of domestic abuse has set up a display to show how many women are killed each year by domestic abuse.
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00:00So we're here in Newport in the centre and what's your name young lady?
00:04Tessa Lynham. Tessa what's going on? There's a lot of shoes here, what's
00:08happening? It's kind of a symbolic image that you've presented for us.
00:12Yep, so I'm actually a survivor of domestic abuse and I've decided on International Women's Day to mark the
00:19occasional by putting out 80 pairs of shoes for all the women who were sadly killed last year at the hands of men.
00:27So that's 80 women? Yeah, even though the number is actually thought to be higher than that, unfortunately.
00:33And it's kind of, it's that, it goes on in so, I mean these are women that were killed, how many, how many women are being abused that, you know, don't die, it's massive isn't it really?
00:45A lot of abuse does go unreported because women are scared to report it, so the numbers are even going to be even higher than that.
00:53So do you, kind of just trying to bring it to people's attention, what in terms of looking out for, you know, perhaps a friend of yours is being abused and just awareness in that respect?
01:03I think a visual impactful statement like this is good to get people to stop in their tracks and then around the shoes there is some information about different sorts of abuse, help line numbers, and then obviously if people have got concerns they can come and speak to me and I can help guide you to the best one.
01:22And what was the moment where you managed to kind of pull yourself out of your own situation and get the strength to do that?
01:28So I left three years ago, nearly four this year, and it took six years to leave so I know it's not easy and it did end up going to Crown Court, but I'm so, so glad I did, it's not been easy, but it's absolutely worth it even.
01:44And when you've been in that kind of a relationship, it must be difficult to have another relationship and, you know, does it give you a perception of relationships and men and lack of trust?
01:55Absolutely, it's made me realise he's moving forward. He's nice to look out for as well, there's a lot of pattern behaviour, red flags to look out for. It's also made me aware of things like Clare's Law that you can do and Sarah's Law which are really, really important to keep you safe.
02:13Can you just touch upon those? What are those?
02:15So Clare's Law is where you can go to the police if you are dating someone or you're about to date someone and they can disclose any information they may have on the person.
02:26Okay, so you're here for the day?
02:29Yep.
02:29And what's the feedback been so far?
02:33We've had lots of positive feedback, we've had some donations made, people stopping, people speaking and that's what we're here for really, just to raise awareness, get people speaking about it because it's a very taboo subject.
02:44Yeah, indeed. Well, thank you for what you've done here today and like you say, getting people talking. Thank you.
02:50So, Councillor Thomas Ciancollo, sir, what do you think of the display here today?
02:55Well, I think it's a really important issue that I think Tess is raising here. Domestic violence, it goes without saying, is a stain on our society and obviously we've got the 80 pairs of shoes here today on the floor which is representing the 80 women that were killed last year through domestic violence and that's just recorded so we can imagine the numbers much higher.
03:16For me, it's very important that community campaigns like Tess are out there with this message, raising awareness, I think through her courage, it's going to help inspire others to come forward and hopefully find a pathway of their own personal health.
03:33I'm sure that's one of those, if it helps just one person, then it's worthwhile doing this kind of campaign.
03:42It's great to be here to support her today in a capacity as one of her local councillors and as a friend and as somebody who grew up in what was a pretty rocky childhood myself and my own mother, she had a lot of domestic abuse when we were growing up and so I've had the pleasure of being accommodated by places like Women's Refuge in Telford when I was younger for a few weeks while we found permanent accommodation and I think
04:08without these kind of campaigns, without these kind of charities, domestic violence will continue going unchecked and sadly fatalities will continue to happen so yeah, I'm very delighted to be here to support Tess today and to help signpost where I can women who have suffered domestic abuse in the right way, in the right place, in the right directions and hopefully they can, like I say, find a way of their own personal health and move on with their lives in a happy, safe environment.