Solicitor general Ellie Reeves MP.

I’ve heard women describe years of psychological torture.

Partners who controlled what they wore, who they spoke to, how they spent every penny.

Men who monitored phones, isolated them from family and friends, made them feel worthless, crazy, like they were losing their minds.

Coercive control is domestic abuse without the physical scars. It is psychological warfare waged behind closed doors.

Abusers use patterns of threats, humiliation and intimidation to trap their victims. They create invisible prisons. Women talk of living with a monster in your own home. Never knowing what will set him off. Walking on eggshells every single day.

And yet, too often, these women weren’t being served by the criminal justice system. That’s why, ten years ago, on December 29, 2015, legislation was introduced marking coercive or controlling behaviour a specific........

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