Ryan Giggs should be considered innocent until proven guilty, but inevitably many eyes will be on this case as a rare high-profile charge of coercive control. Serial philanderer, his lack of respect for women is clear, and his not-guilty plea for both assault and coercive and controlling behaviour, possibly indicative of his assumed power and untouchability. Giggs wreaked havoc within his own family, and a curious outcome that his brother still bears the fallout of his mother refusing to him speak for some 10 years, despite him being the cuckold. Does his controlling behaviour even extend to his own mother?

For the UK having some of the most advanced domestic abuse laws in the world, whether the stigma or the system, few cases make the distance and cases of high-profile perpetrators are hidden from the headlines. We can all cite cases in the US; James Brown, Sean Penn, Charlie Sheen, Chris Brown to name a few, but still where there were physical injuries as proof. How likely will it be that the assault charges against Giggs are the only ones that stick, and why?

Coercive control became punishable by law in 2015. A milestone introduction, but there is still a long way to go in making that law count for survivors, and penalising, let alone stopping perpetrators. The police recorded 758,941 domestic abuse related crimes in the year up to March 2020*. A 9% increase on the prior year, contributing a staggering 59% of the total number of incidents and crimes reported, and with no doubt a shuddering increase to come from this year of lockdown to March 2021. However only 8% (61,169) of prosecutions for these domestic abuse offences were successful, with just 34 arrests per 100 cases recorded.

So why are these conviction rates so poor? Unsurprisingly, most of these recorded offences, 78%, were violence against the person. Assault is a well-trodden path of readily available evidence of injury and an uncomplicated crime for the police to understand and prove.

Of the thousands of perpetrators that go without conviction, some 52% of lost or dropped cases are associated to the victim; retracted statements, non-attendance at trial or where evidence does not support the case. None of which should be surprising, and all of which can be overcome. By definition of domestic abuse, victims are under a high level of control from their perpetrators, fear, intimidation, shame, all automatically create a high risk of retraction, and a terror at the ordeal of facing them in court. We have run our whole existences on video screens this last year, so why should a woman ever have to be in the same room as their perpetrator now?

Evidence of non-physical abuse can absolutely be gathered but takes more effort and understanding to prove the pattern; emails, messages, social media posts, voice recordings, financial accounts, 3rd party observation as witness statement, could all contribute to successful conviction. Of that 758,941 recorded crimes, for only 24,856 of these offences to be coercive control simply does not make sense in reflecting the true scale of the problem. When 1 in 4 women suffer abuse in their lifetime, it indicates the futility survivor’s still feel in coming forward.

And we are back to Mr Giggs. Yes, innocent until proven guilty, but lets sincerely hope this charge has been pressed soundly and the case judged knowledgeably to make the laws we have in place count.

*Data source – ONS, England and Wales, excluding Greater Manchester

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