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Domestic abuse raids: More than 300 arrested in London | |
(about 3 hours later) | |
More than 300 arrests have been made by police in a series of raids against domestic abuse offenders across London. | |
Mor than 4,500 officers are targeting suspects as part of Operation Dauntless, to reinforce Scotland Yard's "intolerance" to domestic abuse. | |
The force said it expected more arrests to be made by midnight when the operation ends. | |
An awareness campaign is also taking place across London, including information stalls in shopping areas. | |
Rise in offences | Rise in offences |
Commander Christine Jones said: "These aren't people we could have arrested yesterday, these are ones that we haven't been able to track down and we continue to do so. | |
"They [the victims] often don't realise what's happening until they take a stand back, but someone outside can often see it and if you suspect you've seen it [abuse] then please contact us. | |
"I don't want people to think that this is only a crime against women. We do deal with female domestic abusers, it's about controlling relations and that isn't always gender specific." | |
Commander Jones added that one man was arrested earlier in Islington after a woman contacted police last night to say she had been stalked over the past 20 years. | |
Statistics from the Metropolitan Police show that recorded domestic abuse offences have increased by 8.9% over the past year. | |
Between 1 April 2013 and 12 January 2014, 37,349 offences were recorded compared to 34,298 offences recorded for the same period in 2012/13. | |
It added that a proportion of this increase was because the definition of domestic abuse had been expanded to include 16-year-olds. |