"Sandra"

Violence against anyone is wrong. But violence perpetrated by men against women is obscene.

And it exists everywhere.

In my work as an equal rights lawyer I come across dozens of cases of men hitting or maiming women. Some I can't take on because of workload or conflict of interest (I also volunteer at a shelter for homeless and abused young women). But I work on as many as I can and instruct (usually female) barristers to pursue them in court.

A recent one in particular is worth highlighting. Any names and places have been changed, and minor changes have been made in the story to avoid identification.

Sandra, a 21 year old - pregnant with A's child - was beaten up and left for dead by B, who was not her partner in any form, yet believed that he alone had the right of access to her body.

Sandra, of course, suffered a miscarriage, and was then attacked by A, who was incensed that she had 'lost' his child.

She took refuge at the home of a friend, which is where I and doctors became involved. She told me that since the age of 13 she had been a punchbag because men had tried to own her. (When not covered in bruises and plasters, she was a cute strawberry blonde who looked younger than she was.)

My intuition told me that she was hiding something. And indeed she was. Her birth mother had died when she was 6 months old, and she'd been raised by her father and his girlfriend. She said that they had treated her as a slave, expecting her to cook and clean for them and for a man she knew as Uncle George.

George had raped her when she was 13 but she hadn't reported it, and both the father and the stepmother had turned a blind eye.

When Sandra was 19 she met B. She told me that they were just friends. 18 months later she met A and fell pregnant.

This is the sort of life story which really makes you despair of men as our self-styled \"protectors\".

You'll be pleased to learn that both 'Uncle' George and A are serving time.

But what sort of a world are we and our female children facing? If we cannot prevent the Sandras of this world from being used and abused, are we worthy of thinking ourselves intelligent women?