A MUM who endured eight years of abuse from a violent partner says a Glasgow charity which is facing a funding threat may have saved her life.

The woman sobbed as she told how the physical and emotional attacks started the day she took her newborn daughter home from hospital.

She bravely shared her story with the Glasgow Times to highlight the support she received from Glasgow East Women’s Aid (GEWA) which is waiting to find out if it will receive vital grant funding from the council.

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Without the support and protection she says it is possible she would have taken her own life.

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The woman, whose identity is protected, says the night she was admitted to the charity’s refuge with her young daughter was the first time she had slept in weeks, “because all the worry had left me.”

The charity admits women and children from all over Scotland to its refuge of five flats, which is currently at capacity and also provides crisis support to women and counselling in their own homes or at its base, including dedicated support for children.

New figures show a woman or girl is killed every 36 hours in Britain, driving domestic violence to its highest level in 14 years.

There were 241 female victims of murder or manslaughter in the 12 months to March last year, data from the Office for National Statistics shows. It is the second annual increase, up from 220 deaths the previous year, and the highest number since 2006.

The woman says drug problems led to her, “picking men as life partners who weren’t good people.”

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She said: “My son’s dad wasn’t abusive but my daughter’s dad was a different kettle of fish. The abuse started the day my daughter was born.

“We didn’t get home till 10pm that night. All the other mothers were going home during the day and the nurses were asking where he was. I remember I called his mother and she said to me, ‘Is he not even allowed to have his dinner.’

“That was the start of it.

“He was physically attacking me, seeing other women. I found women’s underwear under my bed.

“He told me I was ugly. I felt as if I wasn’t worth a bit of sh** because he ground me down.”

“I remember one day he kicked my door in. He was shouting ‘prostitute’ at me, trying to take my daughter away. I just had this sense don’t let her go.

“He was a manipulator. Me son wanted to murder this guy, when he saw the state I was in.”

Help came after an addictions support worker noticed scratches on her arm and she was referred to GEWA.

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She said: “Everything happened really quickly after that. I was told to pack up everything in my flat, I didn’t have much to pack.

“The first night was the actually the first night I got a good sleep because all the worry had left in one night.”

She spent a year in the refuge and and then the charity assisted her to find a flat and she is continuing to receive support to rebuild her life.

In Scotland anyone fleeing from or threatened with domestic violence automatically has a legal right to housing.

She said: “I do feel positive, I’m looking at college courses, I still involve myself with Women’s Aid.

“It’s eight years since I’ve been here but I know all the women and I trust them with everything.”

If the refuge hadn’t been available she says: “I would have probably done myself in. They offer a lot of empathy and teach you that you are worth a decent life.”

The mum-of-two also had to endure a lengthy court battle with her former partner, who was granted contact with his daughter. and says the abuse has had a lasting impact on the teenager.

She said: “She didn’t talk much and was a very paranoid wee girl. She’s still paranoid to this day. I teach her to have respect for herself and to be kind to other people. She has her dad on a pedestal.”

Support workers say it’s a common, when partners can no longer physically or emotionally hurt victims that the ‘abuse’ takes the form of lengthy court battles for contact with children, effectively leaving women ‘trapped in the abuse cycle.’

Karen Arbuckle, who supports women and children, said: “It’s a huge part of the abusive dynamic. They are still a parent to that child and that child still has love for the parent and they are very torn.

“That has a huge emotional impact. Children are very often used as tools for abuse because it’s an easy way to hurt the mother.

“It’s a means of control and very common. Court situations are going on for years and that’s a problem because it’s keeping women in that situation.

“It offers the chance for absolute manipulation.”

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New laws came into force in January which mean children involved in some of the most serious crimes including murder, human trafficking and domestic abuse will no longer be required to give evidence in court.

Karen says the charity often use drawings as a method of allowing children to give evidence and says it is very successful.

She said: “I used it with two boys fairly recently and they were able to offer their life experience in the form of picture. That had an influence on the court and the outcome was, no contact.”

The charity is waiting to find out if it will be successful in its latest funding application to the council, which is tasked with making around £50million in savings. Karen says the necessity to make frequent applications has a detrimental impact on service planning.

She said: “It’s really important for us to have that continuity, to allow us to able to continue to to provide services for children and young people.

“Our funding used to be ring fenced but now other third sector organisations can apply. There is a lot more competition.”

Glasgow East Women’s Aid operates a Crisis Line which can be reached on 0141 773 3533