ELDERLY victims of domestic abuse are too scared to report their abusers, a  councillor and former nurse has said.

There is estimated to 4,800 victims of domestic abuse in St Helens, with 1,000 people experiencing high or medium risk abuse, according to a council report.

Of the 1,000 high risk victims, it is estimated that around 430 will be visible to services.

Between October 2016 and September 2017, 2,401 incidents were reported to the police with 1,909 crimes identified. Of those, 74 per cent of victims identified as female.

Speaking at the council’s safer communities overview and scrutiny panel this week, Rainford councillor Linda Mussell said the figures suggest people are becoming more comfortable to report abuse.

However, the former nurse said elderly and vulnerable adults often get lost in the discussion about domestic abuse.

She said professionals can often suspect abuse is taking place but are limited in their powers to uncover the truth.

“It’s hard as a professional to find out what’s going on,” the Conservative councillor said.

“You may suspect it, but they won’t tell you because when you go through the door it starts again and they’re frightened of that.

“And it’s really difficult to find out what’s going on, to report it.

“You can’t get these elderly people, who are in such a vulnerable position, on their own for any length of item to have a chat with them.

“If they have dementia sometimes they can’t tell you what’s going on, but it’s going on and you can see it but it’s hard to tackle, it really, really is.”

Jason Pickett, the council’s assistant director of community and school support services, was invited to the panel to discuss the borough’s domestic abuse strategy.

He said domestic abuse against elderly people takes many forms and must often be handled “sensitively”.

Mr Pickett later acknowledged there is not enough emphasis on domestic abuse involving the elderly in the strategy.

“I think the overall issue of domestic abuse involving elderly people need probably needs to come out a bit more in this document,” Mr Pickett said.

“I don’t think it’s got enough emphasis on it.”

The strategy, which was approved by cabinet in February, was produced to specifically tackle domestic abuse in St Helens following an Ofsted recommendation.

A pan-Merseyside approach adopted previously.

“This is very much a St Helens strategy,” Mr Pickett said. “It reflects the needs of a St Helens community.”

Mr Pickett said the strategy contains an action plan to help address domestic abuse in St Helens, although he acknowledged it will take some time to deliver.

Stephen Tracey, senior assistant director for social work and community, will oversee the delivery of the action plan and has set up a multi-agency group involving senior officers across all partner agencies.

Mr Pickett said work around domestic abuse involving the elderly needs to be factored in to the upcoming work on the action plan.

The strategy will be subject to annual review and it is proposed that six-month progress reports will be presented to the People’s Board.