I was pleased, looking at some DV Web sites recently for a discussion over on GB, that at least some organisations are now expressly catering for battered boyfriends and husbands as well as girlfriends and wives.

If Paul had chucked the glass back at Donna, or even given her a slap or a shove, that would be one thing. Instead, she says: "He gave me a punch in the jaw and I went flying across the room, banging into the china closet in the dining room. At that point, all of the glasses started to smash. When I heard the noise, I was furious. I lunged back at him and he started shaking me. He then started slapping and punching me. All I can remember is being punched and slapped and hit and glasses breaking." When the level of violence is that disparate, I don't think it matters who started it. (Walker doesn't state that this is the first episode of violence in the marriage, only that it was a typical one.)

If you run your eye over my posting again, you'll note that Donna's isolation was much, much more than Paul just staying late at the office. He deliberately isolated her from everyone else she knew - a classic tactic of abusers.