Rural abuse survivors call for better support as they share stories of isolation and control

Domestic abuse survivors who grew up or live in remote parts of the UK are urging governments to do more to help victims in rural areas, warning that isolation, distance from services and tight-knit communities can make it easier for abuse to go unnoticed and harder for people to escape.

One of those speaking out is Tracy Lewis, a 48-year-old farmer who grew up on a farm in mid-Wales and says she endured physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her father throughout her childhood. Although she loved being around animals, she describes the abuse as "torture" and recalls feeling trapped on the farm with nowhere to turn.

Tracy, who now farms in her own right and has three children, remembers one incident when she was just eight years old. She says her father pulled her from her bed by her hair to help with lambing. As she walked past the bathroom, she saw her mother's face covered in blood and her nose badly injured, and her mother told her they had to get the lamb out or they would both die.

She was raised on a farm in Llanbister in Powys, and says the animals were sometimes used as a tool of control or as a trigger for further violence. If an animal died, she would be beaten; if an animal fell ill, her mother would be hurt. Tracy describes the experience as a form of slavery, saying the family loved farming and the animals but were isolated and stuck.

Tracy says she sometimes thought about calling ChildLine because she was so frightened, but the nature of rural life made it difficult to seek help. While neighbours in farming communities are often willing to lend a hand, she says abuse can be hidden very easily behind closed doors, and the fact that everyone knows everyone means private suffering tends to stay private. For her, the experience was one of terror and horror, and she believes her mother suffered the worst of it while trying to protect her children despite being completely isolated, with the farm forming the centre of her life.

She also points to the economic pressures that can keep rural victims silent. Farming families often run businesses passed down through generations and depend on markets and trade with others, so speaking out about abuse can threaten livelihoods and relationships within the community. Tracy says she also experienced financial abuse, claiming her father led her to believe the farm would one day be hers, and that she worked on it for two decades and paid him rent on that understanding. After discovering the farm had not been left to her in his will, she says she had to fight to keep ownership of it. Her father is now dead.

Tracy is one of roughly 11 million people living in rural areas, which make up more than 15% of the UK population. The National Rural Crime Network says the true scale of rural abuse is often hidden, with survivors facing more obstacles than those in towns and cities when trying to reach support.

Another survivor, Rhianon Bragg, has spoken about how living remotely enabled an ex-partner to hold her at gunpoint for eight hours at her smallholding in Gwynedd, north Wales, in 2019. She says she screamed during the attack by Gareth Wyn Jones but knew no one would hear her because of where she lived, and that there were several moments that night when she feared she would never see her children again.

Rhianon has described her experience in detail as part of a new BBC iPlayer series called It Happened To Me. She has since worked with agencies including the police to try to improve how domestic abuse and stalking are handled in rural areas, and says the attack turned her home from a place of peaceful seclusion into a place of vulnerable isolation, exposing the extra barriers created by rural living.

She argues that all UK and Welsh government domestic abuse policies should be "rural proofed" so that victims are treated fairly regardless of where they live. Among the issues she highlights are poor internet connectivity, which can limit access to online support, and the long distances between rural homes and police stations, which can delay emergency responses and make victims feel they have no realistic way to get help quickly.

Both survivors are now calling on governments to take rural victims' needs into account. The UK government said it is working to address disparities between rural and urban areas, while the Welsh government said the challenges facing rural communities will be considered as part of its next national strategy on domestic abuse.

Tracy urged anyone affected by abuse to reach out for support rather than suffering in silence, stressing that help is available even in the most remote communities. She said the farming world can be the best place to be, with neighbours always ready to help, but that the same closeness that makes rural life special can also allow abuse to remain hidden for years.

The accounts highlight a wider problem for policymakers: rural areas are home to millions of people, yet support services, transport links, phone and internet coverage, and police presence are often spread thinly across large distances. For victims, that combination can mean longer waits for help, fewer places to turn and a greater risk of being found out if they try to report abuse, particularly in communities where everyone knows everyone else and reputations matter.

Advocates say that without targeted funding, better connectivity and policies designed specifically for rural settings, survivors will continue to fall through the gaps. They argue that rural proofing is not about special treatment but about ensuring that existing protections work equally well for people who live far from the services most people take for granted.

For Tracy and Rhianon, sharing their stories is part of a push to make that change happen, so that other people living in isolated places know they are not alone and that support can reach them, however remote their home may be.