Thread by @sturdyAlex

THREAD By DM; wishes to remain anonymous:

"My partner was a police officer, you’re raised to trust the police aren’t you?

As soon as we moved in together he became increasingly controlling." 1/ #STFUSaturday

"He’d check my mobile phone regularly, started telling me how a dress made me look like a slag, cut me off from my friends and family until there was only him and his friends left, his friends who witnessed my abuse and did nothing." 2/ #STFUSaturday

"He would cheat regularly but told me it was in my mind. (I later found out he had a mistress who he’d forced to have several abortions whilst I was with him).

Eventually things escalated and he became violent." 3/ #STFUSaturday

"He’d use police restraint techniques to discipline me if I disagreed with anything, or just to move me to another room. He once pinned me down & twisted my arm slowly until it fractured. I wasn’t allowed to go to hospital, I just had to wait for it to heal." 4/ #STFUSaturday

"He dared me to report it, that nothing would happen. He once gave me a kicking so bad I could barely walked and limped for days.

He became so confident in getting away with what he was doing that he even boasted to his sister that I’d never leave him." 5/ #STFUSaturday

"She called me when he was on shift one day and talked me into fleeing, I left with what I could carry.

Later, a friend who was a senior police officer said that I needed to report, that they didn’t want people like that in the police force." 6/ #STFUSaturday

"I was terrified but I did it, only for the matter to be sent to his best friend in the same force. I was devastated, he’d always said he’d get away with it.

I spoke to a women’s charity. They said I could ask for the matter to be investigated by another force." 7/ #STFUSaturday

"I felt like it was pointless now that he would have been tipped off but went ahead with it anyway. Turns out he’d had time to get rid of evidence, make repairs where he’d damaged doors to get to me and to line up several excellent character references." 8/ #STFUSaturday

"I was surveilled and followed by undercover officers from his force throughout this ordeal, adding to my distress. Heartbreakingly the matter went nowhere. I’d put my friends and family through it for nothing." 9/ #STFUSaturday

"The investigating officer told me he’d fed back to my ex-partners force that they had a 'bad apple'. It was little consolation. His force's internal investigations team contacted me several months later to say they needed to speak to me. 10/ #STFUSaturday

"I declined, saying there was no point at this stage. They asked me three times in total, and after I declined to speak to them a third time they raided my parents home and arrested me to force me to speak with them." 11/ #STFUSaturday

"I went through the humiliation of being kept in a cell for hours, finger-printed, photographed. All for a statement. The charge against me of course went nowhere.

They eventually managed to get him out of the force on something completely unrelated." 12/ #STFUSaturday

"The trial was not even listed at crown court - it was secret. I only found out about it because a court reporter had happened to enter that particular courtroom.

I’m one of the lucky ones, I managed to rebuild my life." 13/ #STFUSaturday

"Not all survivors of police abuse and corruption are as lucky.

It’s the first time I’ve ever summarised what happened to me.

Please anonymous, I have experience of what the police are capable of and I need to keep my family safe." 14/14 #STFUSaturday