Olga Pramanik used to sleep in her clothes and shoes on the sofa, so that if she needed to escape from her husband in a hurry, she could.
‘He had always been controlling but when we moved to the UK from Switzerland in 2016 and I wanted to get a job, everything got worse,’ the 40-year-old cleaner from London tells Metro.
‘He wanted me to do what he wanted me to do. I only had his credit card which I used for food shopping, I didn’t have my own bank account. He set up a joint account without me signing any papers.’
When her husband, Kaushik Pramanik, became physically abusive in 2022, the authorities got involved. However, although he was found guilty and sentenced to 30 weeks in jail for coercive and controlling behaviour and 10 weeks for assault by beating, the sentence was suspended for one year.
It meant that despite years of abuse, Olga’s abusive husband walked free from court. And although he is banned from contacting her due to a restraining order, without any sort of prison sentence, he arguably has more freedom now than she did while living with him.
It is estimated that 2.1 million people in England and Wales experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2023, according to the Office of National Statistics’ Crime Survey.
Yet, despite nearly a 50% increase in such crimes since 2018, prosecutions have reduced by 42% in the same period, according to domestic abuse charity Advance.
As part of their recent report, Her Story, Her Justice, survivors are speaking out about the impact of such lenient sentencing, with one sharing: ‘So many women are too scared to press charges, and then you see someone getting three months for ABH, it just isn’t going to deter him from doing it again.’
Now, the charity is calling for tougher sentencing for domestic abuse, urging that it reflects the severity of the crime.
During Olga’s abusive relationship, the mother-of-four set up a secret bank account and got her first phone, which she knew he’d disapprove of.
Her plan was to get a job as a cleaner so she could be financially independent, but when Pramanik discovered the phone, he tried to confiscate it. He also took Olga’s work clothes and cleaning products and threw them behind the wire fence of a nearby electricity substation where she couldn’t retrieve them.
When Olga ignored his demands to stop working, he told the street’s WhatsApp group that his wife was a prostitute and put her number on an adult website so she got unwanted calls throughout the night.
He warned Olga that if she reported him, no-one would believe her. With her confidence at rock bottom, she gave in and stopped working.
Even so, Pramanik still terrorised his wife and even called the police to report her for sex work.
At her wits end, on Halloween night 2022, Olga told her husband she wanted a divorce. In response, Pramanik hit her across the face multiple times with his mobile phone in front of their children.
‘I was worried my jaw was broken,’ she remembers. ‘I couldn’t speak, my lip was split, my jaw was shaking and I was in so much pain. He hit me so coldly, with no emotion. I was shocked and my daughter had seen it happen. I was worried I would have to go to hospital, but I didn’t want to leave my children with him. The doctors would ask what happened and I didn’t know how to explain.’
However, that wasn’t the end of the abuse. Pramanik would throw stones at his wife and chase her down the garden with a stick. On other occasions he would come to her in bed and silently – so the neighbours wouldn’t hear – shove her, hold her hand, try to kiss her or take her phone. Often, she would end up sleeping downstairs on the sofa, so she could get out to the garden if she was in danger.
‘I was afraid to sleep at night and would try to sleep during the day,’ Olga recalls. ‘I would get by on four hours. I was tired and didn’t know how it was going to end. I could only foresee bad things.’
Two weeks after Halloween, Pramanik was arrested following her neighbour’s report to the police. Although, her husband didn’t spend any time in jail, Olga feels that the fact that he got such a lengthy suspended sentence is at least a step in the right direction.
‘I didn’t know what to expect from the sentencing, but I know prisons are full and my husband had a good barrister,’ she says. ‘But at least he’s following the rules of his restraining order. ‘That said, no-one should live in fear. Sentencing is important; it needs to send the message out that perpetrators of violence will be punished.’
While Olga is waiting for the divorce to be finalised, 33-year-old Anna* has ten years to recover from the horrific violence she endured at the hands of her ex before he walks free.
The couple met in 2021 and clicked straight away. ‘There were no red flags at the beginning; he just made me feel really special,’ she tells Metro.
Then the abuse began. The first assault happened after a jealous Ben* asked to look at Anna’s phone. When she refused he bit her face in anger.
The mother-of-two remembers: ‘My face was bleeding. He got a tissue, wiped the blood and told me: “Look what you made me do” Then he walked out.’
Anna was too scared to report him. ‘I thought – if he could do that to me about my phone, what would he do if I went to the police?’ she explains.
Instead, she stayed in her mum’s house, while a repentant Ben called her multiple times.
‘He got in my head,’ she admits. ‘He told me he loved me like he’d never loved anyone before. That’s what abusers do.’
Ben moved back in, but Anna lived in constant fear of his bubbling rage. ‘Anything he wanted or anything he asked, I would do,’ she remembers.
Soon he became oppressive; dictating where she could go and when, keeping her close by his side at all times. She stopped seeing her friends and answering her phone.
‘I lived with constant anxiety,’ Anna recalls. ‘Anytime I needed to go to the toilet in the night, I used to just wait in bed till he woke up in the morning, so he wouldn’t get angry. He completely diminished my self confidence. In the space of a year, I lost three and a half stone.’
Talking frankly about Ben’s abusive behaviour, Anna explains: ‘Before it would start; his face would go vacant. His whole demeanour would change. I kept thinking – is today going to be the day he will kill me?’
If she walked away, he would pull her back by her hair with such force she was left with permanent hair loss. He kicked and punched her unconscious and left her bleeding and bruised. One assault, filmed by the neighbours, was described as being akin to ‘a grown man kicking a football’.
Ben also burnt Anna, stabbed her and left her with lasting spine damage.
Along with the physical abuse, there was coercive behaviour too. Ben made Anna leave the family WhatsApp group, deleted all her social media and took her phone away. He obsessed over what time she would leave the office, asking her to email from her work address the minute she left so he could monitor how long it took her to get home. If she failed to do so, he would fly into a rage.
Then eventually, he stopped her from working. She wasn’t even allowed to go to the shop on her own.
Aware of Ben’s dangerous behaviour, social services contacted Anna’s family and friends so they could build a case against him without her having to stand in court.
With the help of the charity Advance, they collected GPS evidence, CCTV and witness statements from neighbours – enough to charge him with GBH with intent.
After 18 months of violence, the police had enough evidence to arrest Ben without a statement from Anna. When they took him into custody she was finally able to tell officers the truth about the abuse.
‘I felt lighter at that point,’ Anna admits. ‘But I knew that wasn’t the end of it.’
Within two weeks Ben had called her 482 times from prison, warning that he had people on the outside who could kill her.
Then, last year, he appeared in court charged with GBH with intent and controlling and coercive behaviour and was sentenced to ten years behind bars.
‘That was the first time I felt safe’, Anna remembers.
Afterwards, one of the detectives working on her case said he would have given it six months before it became a murder trial. ‘That was shocking to hear,’ Anna says. He had immense control over my whole life. It was psychological control.’
IMPACT analysis has shown a 51% increase in arrests leading to conviction and 34% increase in convictions
Anna is incredibly grateful to the support she received from the police, the council and Advance who, under their IMPACT programme, assigned her a specialist police officer and an Independent Domestic Abuse Advocate.
The programme is designed to overcome problems caused by an intimidating and bureaucratic criminal justice process and to support victims and survivors obtain justice.
And analysis shows that it works; with a 51% increase in arrests leading to conviction and 34% increase in convictions of domestic abuse cases.
‘Women tell us, first and foremost, that they want to be safe,’ explains Liz Mack, CEO of Advance. ‘The criminal justice system has an essential role to play in tackling domestic abuse; sentences for domestic abuse-related crimes must reflect the seriousness and level of harm caused, but they are just the tip of the iceberg.
‘Appropriate sentences must go hand-in-hand with effective perpetrator programmes and other protective measures, such as restraining orders, which need to be implemented and followed through.
‘Sufficient criminal sentences are one part of the solution; we need action across the whole system and in the community to keep survivors safe.’
Today, Anna is very different to who she was before and has been left with depression and anxiety.
‘I do feel safe now. But more importantly, I feel free,’ she explains. ‘I know ten years will be enough time to sort myself out; to recover and heal from everything that’s happened.’
*Names have been changed
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