'He takes every opportunity he can to undermine and control me'

Women's Aid said women were sometimes taking risks in making contact with support services, such as waiting until "the dead of night" to make calls, or running a shower and using the sound to camouflage a call. File photo

The number of women reporting domestic abuse has surged by 43% during the pandemic.

Women's Aid received more than 30,000 disclosures of abuse in 2020, and of those, almost 6,000 involved a child victim — the huge volume of contacts was described as "the tip of the iceberg".