A human rights campaigner who was investigating levels of domestic violence in Cumbria was so shocked by what he found that he was prompted to speak out.

Dave Plumb, the co-chairman of Amnesty International's South Westmorland group, was researching the topic as part of the movement's world-wide campaign, "stop violence against women" when he came across the figures that he described as "disturbing".

After checking with the police that the statistics were accurate, Mr Plumb decided he wanted other people to know that there had been 4,777 domestic violence incidents recorded by Cumbria police in the 12 months to September 2004. Mr Plumb also wanted to highlight Home Office figures that showed, on average, a victim would be assaulted 35 times before calling the police.

"The idea is to get the statistics into the open so it will encourage and increase public support for the victims of domestic violence and also for the people and organisations that care for them," said Mr Plumb.

He wanted to challenge any attitudes that accepted domestic violence as normal.

"If we ever start to treat domestic violence as normal, it's a very big question for us as a society."

Mr Plumb's views were backed up by Jackie Peters, health development worker with SAFE, a charity with a multi-agency team that works in the Barrow and Kendal areas.

Miss Peters said that in January alone, SAFE, which works with women who are victims of domestic violence, their children and the perpetrators, had helped 53 families.

Around 80 per cent of their referrals came from sources other than the police, she said, which could mean the actual figures for domestic violence would be even higher than those recorded by the police.

Awareness of the issue was helpful, she said, if it enabled someone to point a victim in the right direction for help, or if it encouraged someone to report a violent row in the neighbourhood.

Two women per week and one child per week in the UK died through domestic violence, she said.

"People tend to think it's private between a man and his wife, but when you are talking about personal injury or death it's something we are all involved in."

l The Crown Prosecution Service this week launched a revised policy, guidance and training programme for prosecuting cases of domestic violence, with an increased emphasis on the safety of victims and children.

See News - Gazette letters for more.