Week after week Naomi had turned up to her counselling sessions with serious injuries, including having teeth knocked out, burns, scalds and broken bones. After eight months she told the counsellor that it was her boyfriend who was hurting her but that she couldn’t leave him because he had told her that he would kill her if she tried to leave him. She had been putting up with this for years. Then on one occasion Naomi fought back and found herself arrested and charged with assault. She was afraid of any kind of authority figure, as well as being very afraid of her boyfriend and had not dared to tell her own defence team that had hurt her boyfriend by accident when she had been struggling to get away from him when he was attacking her. Her barrister had warned her that she was likely to be given an eight year custodial sentence. The Street Talk counsellor was allowed to accompany Naomi to a meeting with the probation service. When Naomi was asked to give an account of events she said that she couldn’t explain what happened. The counsellor gently said to her, “You can. Just say it how you say it to me.” Eventually Naomi found the courage to tell the probation officer about the years of violence she had been subjected to and the events which led up to her hurting her boyfriend. The probation officer realised that this woman had lived in terror for a long time. The charges against Naomi were changed, she didn’t go to prison and support was put in place to keep her safe from the boyfriend who had intimidated by for years, making it possible for her to leave him.
