16/05/2026
PC Saara Nawaz joined the force after surviving domestic abuse at the hands of her ex-partner😥.
Now she's sharing her story as domestic abuse deaths on the rise.
When PC Saara Nawaz was called to a domestic abuse incident in 2023, she found herself sitting on the pavement with the survivor. “The woman had reported being strangled by her partner,” says Saara, a police officer in her 30s from Mansfield, Notts.
“We arrested the suspect, but she ran away from us. I managed to speak to her and said, ‘we’re here for you, we can support you’ – but she kept saying, ‘there is nothing you can do for me’.
“I explained I was a domestic abuse survivor and I’d been through something similar. I told her if I knew then what I knew now – the support that's available – I would have left him a lot earlier. Eventually the woman gave me a full statement, something she had never done before.”
PC Saara says that like thousands of women every year she never reported her perpetrator’s crimes so he was never charged. But the fear and sense of injustice she carried, prompted her to pursue a career where she could support other survivors and help prosecute abusers❤️.
“When I was going through it myself, I felt I didn't have anyone to turn to,” she says. “I didn’t tell anyone. I felt either scared or feared repercussions. Now I want to be the person who I needed then."
“You still get people saying, ‘why can't you just up and leave?’ If you've never been in that situation, it's very, very difficult to just up and leave. I felt trapped. Although I had a very supportive family, I kept my abuse hidden from them. It was almost as if I was protecting him, over myself.
At the beginning of their relationship, Saara's partner was “caring, funny and thoughtful”. But he became moody, and then physically abusive. She says: “The first time was when he pushed me when I was cooking. He was very apologetic and I convinced myself it wouldn’t happen again.
“It got worse, he strangled me – then blamed me. If he had a bad day, he'd take it out on me.” Her ex-partner would smash up Saara's home and drove erratically to frighten and control her. “I went through every stage of abuse – physical, emotional and coercive-control”, says Saara.
Eventually Saara did open up to her GP. “The doctor told me, ‘even once is too many.’ That stayed with me,” she says. Soon after, Saara managed to break free.
As she continues to tackle abusers on the frontlines of violence against women and girls, Saara is hoping her story will help others to come forward and make the brave step to report violence🙏❤️.
