A 36-YEAR-old Limassol man was arrested over the weekend on charges of wife battering and assault causing actual bodily harm, police said yesterday.
On Sunday, an officer from a local police station was called to a Limassol home to investigate a domestic violence complaint, which had been called in by the 36-year-old’s young Russian wife.
According to the officer, when he arrived on the scene the man appeared to be under the influence of alcohol. He then allegedly lunged at the policeman, ripping his uniform in the process and causing him actual bodily harm. The officer managed to immobilise the 36-year-old and proceeded to arrest him on grounds of catching him in the act of a crime. The policeman and Russian woman were then taken to Limassol general hospital. The officer was administered first aid and released said police. The 36-year-old’s wife, however, was kept in after suffering bruises and abrasions all over her body.
Despite her injuries, her husband was released yesterday after a Limassol court failed to remand him. Police said he would still face charges. Depending on the severity of the battering he could face either a fine or imprisonment, they added.
According to the Domestic Violence Centre in Nicosia, there has been an improvement in police handling of wife battering incidents.
“There are specially trained officers in the CID that deal with domestic violence cases. However, as far as the general police force is concerned, it is more up to the sensitivity of the particularly station or duty officer, whereas they should all be trained to deal with this issue,” a social worker at the centre said.
“Training on this subject is given at the police academy, but continuous seminars should be given to officers once they have completed their training.”
She added: “Although they normally respond to emergency calls of this nature immediately, we have received information that there were times the authorities did not respond to 911 calls.”
Another problem was the way police took statements. By law, victims of domestic violence are allowed to give their statements to police in private rooms behind closed doors. “But not all stations allow for this because they don’t have the room,” she said.
Nevertheless very often charges were not pressed against the abuser because the spouse dropped charges. “They might withdraw their charges for any number of reasons, involving a whole series of factors. Their husband might threaten them, they decide to stay with him because their children need a father or it could the first time he has been violent and the couple decide to try again.”
Despite this, if the battering was severe enough they would charge the abuser, irrespective of the victim’s willingness to drop the charges, said police.
