Bullying partners could be jailed for five years (Picture: Getty)

Laws coming into force on Tuesday mean emotionally controlling partners can be jailed, even if they don’t use violence.

Domineering behaviour, such as hiding someone’s passport or keys so they can’t escape, has been recognised as abuse.

The Serious Crime Bill makes it a crime to act abusively, be controlling or coercive of your partner, and people who have been bullied in this way now have two years instead of just six months to report it.

What does this include? For example: stopping your partner accessing bank accounts

refusing to pay child support

stopping them being able to escape by taking their car keys

Shireen Jamil, aged 60, who says she is herself a former victim of abuse, campaigned for the change in the law.


She told The Express: ‘We have heard that two women a week are killed by their husbands and partners in this country.



‘This figure is unacceptable. But what we are not given is a figure for the number of women who commit suicide every week, due to not just physical violence, but the even more sinister abuse that has finally become a crime. And that is coercive control.’

She added: ‘It is very gratifying to know that future generations will benefit from getting the justice denied me.’

The legal change was made earlier this year, but it didn’t come into force until now so that police and CPS could learn new guidelines.