Trek icon's anti-violence campaign

Star Trek icon Patrick Stewart has given his backing to a new global campaign to cut violence against women.

The British actor, Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the sci-fi series, is supporting an Amnesty International drive to highlight the abuse suffered by women across the globe.

Yorkshire-born Stewart, 63, has played Captain Picard since 1987 in TV's Star Trek: The Next Generation and a string of hit Star Trek movies.

Amnesty secretary general Irene Khan said: "Violence against women is a human rights atrocity.

"From the battlefield to the bedroom, women are at risk."

The charity published a new report outlining the "endemic scale and urgency" of the problem, estimating that at least one in three women in the world will suffer serious violence in their lifetime.

In the UK, violence against women in the family is at "crisis point", the charity claimed, with one call to the emergency services every minute and two women killed every week.

Up to 70% of the world's female murder victims are killed by male partners, the report added.

Ms Khan said: "Behind closed doors, and in secret, women are subjected to violence by their partners and close relatives, too ashamed and afraid to report it and seldom taken seriously when they do.

"Violence against women is not normal, legal nor acceptable and should never be tolerated or justified. It can and must be stopped."