However, the issue around incidents should never mask nor override the need to look at individual cases. It only takes one blow to kill someone and I am sure that because I was rescued by the police having never reported my experiences to them before, I only counted as one "incident". The fact that a kettle of boiling water had been poured over me twice, and that on three occasions an iron was placed on me, were not reported, and nor were the dozens of other assaults I experienced. It's worth bearing in mind too that male victims of partner abuse are in many cases unlikely to go to the police at all, out of fear of not being taken seriously.