THE number of women seeking sanctuary from domestic violence at the Women’s Refuge has shown no sign of decreasing in 20 years, according to the centre’s manager.

Marisha Carter, who retires next week after two decades at the refuge, says that she has seen no evidence of any fall in the number of women coming forward for help in all that time.

She said that there was no way of knowing how many women in the Island were being subjected to such violence at home, but she added that there was no doubt that the attitude within the community towards domestic violence had changed over the years.

In the Saturday Interview in today’s Jersey Evening Post, she talks about her experiences since starting work at the refuge as a support worker in 1988. ‘The problem in the early years was that each parish dealt with its own welfare cases and some were more sympathetic to victims of domestic violence than others,’ she said.