It is now illegal for your partner to do these 11 things:

The offence of coercive control means many things that were not covered by previous legislation are now illegal.This new law recognises that domestic abuse can take several forms. As a result of this law change, it is now illegal for your partner to do these 11 things:

1. Share sexually explicit images of you, either online or otherwise
It is against the law for somebody to share intimate photographs of you, with anybody.

2. Restrict your access to money
The law says one partner cannot stop the other from accessing money. Each partner should have equal access to money, your partner should not make you rely on them for “pocket money”

3. Repeatedly putting you down
You may not think being constantly put down by your partner is domestic abuse. Under the new law, name calling, humiliation and intimidation are illegal. It is recognised that these can be as harmful and have a more lasting impact than physical abuse.

4. Stop you seeing friends or family
Alarm bells should ring if your partner stops you seeing friends and relatives, blocks your calls or tells you where you can and cannot go.

5. Scare you
If your partner behaves in a way that scares you this is an offence. They do not have to physically harm you but angry gestures, using their physical size to intimidate you, shouting and throwing things is all picked up by the coercive control legislation.

6. Threatening to reveal private things about you
If your partner threatens to share private information about your health or sexual orientation, this is a form of abuse.

7. Putting tracking devices on your phone
It is illegal under the new legislation to monitor a person using online tracking software.

8. Being extremely jealous
If your partner persistently accuses you of cheating, simply for looking at another person, this could be grounds for prosecution under the new legislation.

9. Making you obey their rules
A relationship should be a partnership, no one partner should have control over the other. Both should have a choice in decision making.

10. Control what you wear
Taking control of any part of your life is covered in the new law. You should have full power to choose what you wear for yourself. The new law means control such as this is now illegal.

11. Forcing you to do things that you don’t want to
Your partner should never force you to do things that you don’t want to, this includes neglecting or abusing your children, having sex when you don’t want to or, forcing you to commit crime.

If you feel unsure whether your partners’ behaviour is abusive, please contact the Safespots Team on 07873889637