Victoria Derbyshire sobs over traumatic childhood with violent abusive dad

Emotional Victoria Derbyshire has said she faced some “really difficult times” during childhood while living with a violent father who used to whip her with his belt.

The BBC presenter said she once had to contact the police over one of his outbursts.

Derbyshire, 51, presented the news in April with the telephone number for the National Domestic Abuse helpline written on her hand.

And in tonight’s Panorama episode, she speaks of her fears for other women in lockdown and recalled the domestic abuse she witnessed as a child.

Derbyshire said: “When the prime minister told us all to stay at home because of coronavirus, one of my first thoughts was for those living in abusive households – women, men and children, essentially trapped, forced to stay inside week after week. What would happen to them?

“Growing up, I remember my whole body tensing every time I heard my father’s key in the back door. What mood would he be in when he came home from work? Would he provoke an argument? Would it lead to him hitting me, whipping me with his belt or just slapping me round the back of my head?”

In a video clip filmed for BBC Panorama: Escaping My Abuser outside her childhood home in Littleborough, Rochdale, Derbyshire said: “I remember once, he locked my mum in their bedroom and he was hitting her and there was loads of noise and I was scared.

“So I ran from here down to the police station which was, I don’t know, maybe a mile or something?

“I was 12 or 13, I was so scared, I just ran to the police station, just ran in and said, ‘My dad’s hitting my mum, please can you come?’.”

In an article for the BBC news website, Derbyshire said that going to school while her father was working “meant respite from the disruptive shouting and cruel violence”.

“The love in our lives came from my amazing mum who did everything she could to make up for his failings,” Derbyshire said.

She has spoken to other women who have been victims of domestic abuse during lockdown and added: “Spending the last few months finding out about the reality of domestic abuse under lockdown has been shocking – but I’ve also met women who’ve courageously escaped during the most challenging circumstances.

“I haven’t met one survivor, charity worker or domestic abuse advocate in the last few months who said they had seen any evidence the government in England had considered the effect lockdown would have on those living in an abusive household.”

Refuge, the charity which runs the National Domestic Abuse Helpline, has reported a rise in the number of calls they received during the lockdown.

Last month the organisation’s director of operations Jane Keeper said there had been “huge spikes in the number of women who have needed or support during lockdown, and as restrictions start to ease we are seeing demand rise yet more”.

In July the charity said the National Domestic Abuse Helpline had received more than 40,000 calls since the start of the coronavirus lockdown.

Refuge’s telephone helpline, which ordinarily logs around 270 calls and contacts from women, friends and family members needing support every day, saw an increase of 77% during June.

*BBC Panorama: Escaping My Abuser airs tonight at 7.30pm on BBC1

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