PC bears the scars of other people's alcohol misuse

After more than a decade on the beat, PC Anne Marie Gray bears the scars of other people’s alcohol misuse.

She’s worked the long and tiring graveyard shift between 6pm and 3am. She’s been punched in the face and spat at, protected vulnerable teenage girls and comforted wives subjected to another brutal beating by men who are supposed to love them – all because someone has drunk too much.

Because she’s had enough, PC Gray is supporting Balance’s ‘I have a drink problem’ campaign, which launched on Monday, August 9, to raise awareness of the problems our frontline services face on a daily basis because of alcohol misuse.

PC Gray is based in Bishop Aukland with a team that looks for solutions to the causes of crime. The team was recently instrumental in ridding a community troubled by a gang of youths drinking alcohol and causing a nuisance. They removed the problem by demolishing the derelict building where they congregated.

The area has a problem with underage drinking and the team has been carrying out undercover sting operations to discover premises which routinely sell alcohol to minors.

“Bishop Aukland has lots of council estates and there’s a big drinking culture. People are drinking all hours of the day. You go to a domestic and it’s always alcohol related.”

Regionally, half of all domestic abuse cases are alcohol related – that’s around 6,500 in the North East last year. PC Gray has seen the effects.

“I’ll never forget the drunk husband who split his wife’s lip down to her chin so she needed plastic surgery. It’s hard to bear because you know this wasn’t the first time and it probably won’t be the last.”

Obviously it’s not just domestic violence. Almost half of all crime is fuelled by alcohol – which PC Gray says turns normal, law abiding citizens into criminals.

“People don’t know when to stop drinking and inhibitions go out of the window,” she said.

“For instance, normally if sober people bump into someone in the street, they apologise and walk on. Drink changes these innocuous situations dramatically – the wrong look can spiral into a fight and someone ends up sparked out.

“Drunks are unpredictable. Sometimes, when you come face to face with an aggressive, abusive one, you fear you’re not going to make it through.”

And she’s come up against her fair share of the aggressive ones.

“When breaking up a violent alcohol fuelled dispute between neighbours, a man suspected of having Hepatitis C spat blood in my face. My colleague and I needed tests at the hospital and endured three agonising months awaiting the all clear.”

Another aggressive neighbour dispute involved dogs belonging to both parties getting involved in a fight.

“One of the dogs had its leg hanging off,” PC Gray said.

“They’d rung a vet, but as they were drunk, they were verbally abusing him down the phone instead of getting their pet the help it needed. In the end, not only did we calm the situation down, we had to take the dog to the vet.”

Often, the aggression doesn’t stop at spitting and foul language. Sometimes it erupts into physical violence.

“Some drunk women see you as fair game and pull your hair or stab you with a stiletto. I’ve even been punched in the face,” PC Gray explained.

Despite dealing with physical and verbal abuse, it’s alcohol’s effects on young women and girls, particularly upon their ability to avoid dangerous situations or make a good decision when drunk, which really has an effect on PC Gray.

“I’m always quite saddened by the young girls you see drinking – those who have drunk so much they can’t remember what they’ve been doing. In Bishop Aukland there’s this area of woodland where people go drinking – the area is littered with bottle, cans and women’s underwear. Drinking too much can cloud judgement and lead to all sorts of unpleasant and regrettable situations.

“We were called out when a groups of youths were causing a disturbance in a church yard. When we got there – they had all been drinking – which was nothing we didn’t expect. The disturbing factor was among the group was a drunk 14 year old girl and a number of older males. You can’t help but think of the consequences. We took her home and explained the situation to her parents – but they didn’t show any concern whatsoever.”

PC Gray has identified the widespread availability of cheap alcohol as a cause of the problems she and her colleagues face on a daily basis.

“It’s the volume and quality of the alcohol people drink,” she explained.

“You can buy 15 units for £3 – people are routinely making themselves vulnerable and putting themselves in dangerous situations and we’ve got to do something to stop this happening.”