MP: bullying Charles Saatchi needs help Domestic violence has the highest repeat victimisation of any crime. In part that is because of the shame people feel about reporting it but also because of the fear of reprisals. Perpetrators bully victims into feeling that they are to blame and as so blatantly demonstrated by Saatchi, they minimise their own culpability. For someone with a lifetime's experience in public relations it is extraordinary that he has chosen to make light of his behaviour. He will rightly find that public disgust and his police caution hang around him like a bad smell. The only deodorant will be to unreservedly apologise, accept that he has a problem and seek help to address it. He could find that in doing so he turns his personal PR disaster into something that could help thousands of others to address their violent behaviour . In family households where domestic violence is occurring, ninety percent of incidents take place with children in the same or next room. Half of those children also become victims at some point as perpetrators learn that they can act with impunity. Violence is not untreatable but it has to start with a perpetrator accepting that they, not the victim, are to blame. Wherever domestic violence is minimised as nothing more than a 'tiff', it is doomed to continue. One in seven children know that to their cost. In the meantime Saatchi's ugly assault on one of the nation's most outwardly beautiful and confident women will hopefully reduce the sense of shame and isolation felt by so many victims. They are not alone and should contact refuge to find their local support network through www.refuge.org.uk. Saatchi should do the same. Dr Sarah Wollaston is the Conservative MP for Totnes. She previously worked as a victim examiner for Devon and Cornwall Police.