Men are increasingly becoming the victims of domestic abuse as figures sore in Cumbria.

The domestic abuse investigation led by Cumbria police admitted there has been an increase in domestic abuse towards men and an increase in same-sex couples.

The sobering figures show huge numbers of people are the victims of domestic abuse with figures more than doubling for the county.

There has been a 113 percent increase in domestic abuse crime since 2016/17, and police are expected it to spike over Christmas.

New figures released by the Office for National Statistics show the sobering truth behind domestic violence in the county. Between 2016/17 there were 2,703 domestic abuse-related crimes recorded by police. This figure jumped to 5,764, more than doubling, by 2018/19.

Cumbria Police released figures showing they have recorded 7,402 incidents of domestic abuse already this year.

Leading a campaign to help victims find their voice, Detective Chief Inspector, Dan St Quintin, said: “We are finding that there is an increase in male victims of domestic abuse coming forward and reporting abuse there is a great support group that works out of Safety Net in Carlisle and they run a group for men and that is really supportive, and there is other across the county.

“It’s a myth that it is just a male on female thing, we find that there are more and more male victims coming forward, although the proportion of male victims to male victims is roughly 70 per cent female to 30 per cent male.

“We get reports now from same-sex relationships, it isn’t a heterosexual thing domestic abuse happens in all relationships.

“We are seeing more in same-sex relationships but it’s still very small numbers but it goes back to that awareness-raising.

“I think younger generations are more unwilling to put up with it.”

After the surge in domestic abuse figures, the detective continued: “The reason we have an increase [in figures] is more people are aware of what domestic abuse is, which is a success.

“More people have confidence in the police and other agencies to do something about it.

“People are also reporting it more, so it’s difficult to say if domestic abuse is actually going up in our communities or not.”

Appalled by this type of offence, police and crime commissioner Peter McCall, said: “Domestic violence has to be one of the most unpleasant things the police have to deal with. For anyone who has to endure it, at any time of the year, it’s an awful thing.

“I would just say to people, you do not have to endure domestic violence of any sort. Please get in touch with the police and they will take it extremely seriously.”