Argus title : Street girls need respect and our help
The usual pre-Christmas slaughter has begun – not of turkeys, but of women.
I enjoy Christmas time, but I also dread it, because I know it’s a time when sexual and domestic violence increases. I’ve come to expect a catalogue of press stories about ways in which women have been abused or killed. Usually the headlines are small and the stories short. Many people would miss them. Over the years, however, my no longer innocent eye has learned to locate them.
There are usually one or two spectacular acts of rape or murder which are so bizarre or gruesome as to attract larger headlines. One year, I remember, a report described how the killer had thrown his female victim’s dead or dying body over a bus shelter. I wondered why he bothered. I suppose it was yet another way of expressing contempt. Continue reading