A NEW plan has been unveiled by the West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner to continue helping victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence.

The new plan will focus on victim support and partnership working to tackle and prevent crimes.

Police and Crime Commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson unveiled the West Yorkshire Domestic and Sexual Abuse Strategy at the Thornbury Centre in Thornbury earlier this month.

It centres around five key areas; partnership working, preventing violence and abuse, provision of services, support for victims and survivors, and pursuing perpetrators.

It also recognises links to other crimes including human trafficking, child sexual exploitation, and female genital mutilation.

West Yorkshire Police deals with an average of six domestic abuse incidents every hour.

Mr Burns-Williamson said: “Domestic abuse and sexual abuse are truly harrowing and appalling crimes and I will do everything in my power to stop them from happening.

“The launch of this strategy is about ensuring we have a truly joined up and systematic approach to dealing with these crimes.

“We need to ensure a consistent level of service across the districts, creating a knowledge and best practise sharing tool, providing further support to victims and creating more targeted campaigns.

“Any incident of domestic abuse is one too many but through increased awareness we are getting more victims to come forward and bringing perpetrators to justice.”

“We have created the Sexual Assault Referral Centre and the Sexual Violence Advisor Service, funding for a perpetrator reform programme, awareness raising campaigns as well as further funding to support projects helping victims of domestic abuse through my Safer Communities Fund.”

Chief Constable Dee Collins, of West Yorkshire Police, added: “We have made great efforts to ensure that crimes are properly recorded, investigated and then victims supported, providing victims with a far greater confidence to come forward to the police and make a report.

“West Yorkshire Police will not tolerate any form of abuse or violence.

“We work closely with partners to continually improve our services to reduce domestic abuse and secure justice for victims.”

If you have been or know someone who has been affected by domestic abuse or sexual abuse, visit helpforvictims.co.uk, or the ‘domestic violence’ and ‘stay safe’ sections of westyorkshire.police.uk.