stand and being sworn in by one of the clerks. She looked broken and torn and was shaking uncontrollably, so much so that the poor thing wet herself in front of us all in the court room. People were embarrassed for her as she stood there after she had spoiled herself. Nobody knew what to do at first, but then it became clear why she was in such a state. She was there to give a witness testimony against her former partner for assault and grievous bodily harm.

I couldn’t help looking at this woman for a long period of time and recognising myself in her. Most of the jury struggled to cope with all the intimate body photos of the various injuries that this lady had endured over the years, the various records of all the broken bones that she had suffered and had healed from only to be broken and broken and broken again.