WOMEN in Guernsey have been choked, punched and threatened with a weapon or even death by their partner. And the extent of the problem has surprised experts.

A new domestic violence survey revealed that 36.8% of 844 women taking part experienced domestic violence of some form. Of these, 14.3% had been suffering for more than 10 years.

‘It is about exercising power and control. They are the ingredients of domestic abuse,’ said Pauline Allen, chairwoman of Options, the Guernsey Domestic Violence Forum.

‘And it can be physical, or it may be a more subtle type of abuse, but the idea that someone has the right to inflict pain on someone else is not right.’

Options had expected the findings to show one in four women had experienced abuse.

But the figures were higher and evidence of what was going on in the island.

The findings will be used by politicians and health and criminal justice system professionals to formulate policy and an island-wide domestic abuse strategy.

Twenty-three statutory and eight voluntary agencies agreed to take part in the survey during May, including medical practices, infant welfare clinics, Les Nicolles prison, Deecaf and Maison St Pierre. The forms were either available to pick up or were handed out.

The women were asked about the type of abuse they had suffered, which included being pushed, pinned down, slapped and kicked.

Twenty-two had been bitten by their partner or someone in their family and 51 had been choked or were the victim of an attempted strangulation. In 45 cases, the women had been threatened with a weapon such as a knife and a weapon was actually used in 24 cases.

Seventy women were forced to have sex against their will and 51 were sexually assaulted.

Police domestic violence officer Geoff Chapman said that about 400 cases came through the courts each year, ranging from trivial arguments to more serious assaults.

Three to four years ago an incident was not dealt with as a crime unless the victim made a statement of complaint.

Now, if there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that an assault has taken place, officers will arrest the apparent perpetrator, regardless of whether there was a complaint or not.

‘I am quite surprised that 36% said that they had experienced some form of abuse, which is quite a high percentage, but I am aware that it is a huge problem in the island since I took on this role two years ago,’ said Mr Chapman.

‘Hopefully this will send a message out that it is not acceptable and that we will put them through the legal system.’

He said that it was particularly upsetting to see the proportion of mothers-to-be who were abused – 20.6% – with the majority being between 14 and 28 weeks pregnant.

The women suffered miscarriage, internal injuries and broken bones, as well as stress, depression and mental health problems.

One respondent commented: ‘I was a young girl – it messes with your head in later life.’

Not all the abuse was physical.

It included being prevented from having a fair share of the household money and being stopped from seeing friends or family.