A CREWE charity has been at the forefront of Cheshire Police's campaign to stamp out domestic abuse.

My CWA (formerly Cheshire Without Abuse), which is based at the Lily Jones Support Centre in Brook Street, has worked with offenders in custody as part of its services which it has been able to maintain through the pandemic and successive lockdowns.

One in four women are likely to be a victim of domestic abuse and the number of reported cases in Cheshire East increased during lockdown.

Stamping out abuse is a priority for Cheshire Police says Superintendent Peter Crowcroft, who told a meeting of Cheshire East Council's scrutiny committee that the force were pulling out all the stops to protect victims including making use of Clare's Law, which allows them to disclose someone's previous history of domestic abuse to a partner.

My CWA provides a service to local families affected by domestic abuse.

"My CWA has placed workers into police custody, so when we arrest domestic abuse perpetrators they're able to work quickly with, often the males, to refer them to perpetrator programmes," said Supt Crowcroft, who is the commander responsible for policing across Cheshire East.

"Since we've had them in custody that programme has had more referrals than it's ever had so that's been a great success.

"Anyone who's suspected of domestic abuse is a priority to the force so we are turning out both covert and overt resources to make sure that we get perpetrators in as soon as we can.

"And we'll also use the full power of civil law as well, so that's protection orders to make sure that we try and keep people safe."

He said police will always work with repeat offenders but added: "What we very clearly say to repeat offenders is, if you do keep offending you will be staying in our cells and we can keep you up to 36 hours and we will impose strict conditions on your liberty and freedom to move around."

Crewe councillor Connor Naismith asked whether had been a rise in reported incidents during lockdown and how police had dealt with it.

Supt Crowcroft told him: "You've almost got the perfect recipe for domestic abuse [during lockdown].

"You've got financial questions, maybe from job loss and furlough, you can't go out so there's no sanctuary in going out shopping etc, and a lot of the frontline services you're unable to go after or visit. I know all those pressures, as well as being in the house together, led to an increase in reporting.

"But, sadly, a lot of the abuse that does go on is behind closed doors."

He said very few people will report an incident of initial abuse.

"So actually we want to see more reports. Our destination is we want to see less and less repeats, so if someone has the confidence to come forward and report it and we do something together as a partnership, it stops happening," said the police chief.

"And we use Clare's Law to disclose more to prevent future victims ."

He said the police had worked with My CWA to maintain a service throughout lockdown.

"Right in the first tranche of lockdown we knocked on some doors to arrest domestic abuse perpetrators and they honestly told us that we weren't able to lock them up because of lockdown and Covid," said Supt Crowcroft, adding they were promptly arrested.

He said the police also worked with council officers to identify households where they believed there might be issues so they could do a follow-up.

The police boss added although there was an increase in domestic abuse in Cheshire East during lockdown it was not as high as in other areas.