victim-turned-campaigner said yesterday.

Women beaten by husbands and boyfriends were harmed further by such silence, said Women's Resource Centre chairperson Mrs. Shanda Simmons.

"Thirteen years ago I was a victim and at that particular time no-one talked about domestic violence,'' Mrs. Simmons told a Lions lunch at the Princess in Hamilton.

"It was something that I felt I should have been ashamed of. It was something I didn't know where to receive help for.'' She was embarrassed and frightened, she said. "I was in a situation for far longer than I should have been.'' Domestic violence was not just a personal, family problem.

"It's a crime like any other crime. If my 85-year-old grandmother was walking on Front Street and was battered by a man, wouldn't we say that he needs to go to prison? "We need to stop looking at battering in the home as being any different from battering on the street.

"If anything it's worse, because we're battering a person that we say we love. It's a community problem because it spills over into everyone's lives.

"I missed days on end from work because I had black eyes and was too embarrassed to go to work. I could not function in my job.'' And she did not have the energy to deal with her children effectively, she said.

Police could show more humanity and demonstrate their first concern was for a victim's safety, Mrs. Simmons said.

"All I remember was going to the Police station and having pictures taken of my face and the rest of my body that was bruised.'' Officers asked her what she wanted to do about her attacker, and she had been unable to think about that. "I don't remember anyone holding my hand.'' Silence about the crime prevented people learning how to prevent it, she said.

No-one knew how many women were being battered because no separate records had been kept. Police recorded wife-battering as another assault.

But now, she said, an officer was searching through the files since 1990. Mrs.

Simmons showed a video of a CBS "60 Minutes'' programme, broadcast last February, about how domestic violence is handled in Quincy, Massachusetts.

The WRC and the Women's Advisory Council want Quincy's "life-saving'' approach adopted in Bermuda.

The Quincy policy is to try to bring charges against an alleged batterer whenever possible -- even when a victim is unwilling to co-operate.

Police have been specially trained and counsellors tell women their rights and follow what happens to them.

There is a hearing the day after a report and restraining orders are rigidly enforced, said Mrs. Simmons.

This contrasted with Bermuda, where a case could take months to come to court.

This meant more contact between the batterer and his victim, who might drop the case because of fear.

She had heard of a woman whose partner said he would kill himself if she continued to press charges.

Restraining orders were ineffective in Bermuda, she said. This meant more battering.

Quincy monitored batterers daily through the probation service, but in Bermuda each probation officer had around 30 to 40 people to monitor.

And Bermuda's safe house for battered women, run by the physical abuse centre, was too small.

Quincy had not had a death related to domestic violence in more than five years, Mrs. Simmons said.

"Unfortunately, in a small country like Bermuda we can't say that. "But saving lives is not simply keeping a person alive.

"You can be alive and not really be living, fearful of the person you unfortunately had the misjudgement to marry.'' She said campaigners hoped to meet the Police Commissioner on the subject again next month.

Quincy Police were willing to ad vise and train Bermuda officers. The WRC and WAC also hope to meet the Attorney General and Chief Justice and argue for a law to make wife-battering a specific crime.

But the cycle of violence had to be broken, she said, because abuse was behaviour learned in the home.

MRS. SHANDA SIMMONS -- Domestic violence victim turned campaigner.