Bridge To Justice

16/06/2026

𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠.

Some young people leave school and go straight into work.

Some go to college.

Some go to university.

Some have supportive families behind them.

Some don't.

Some arrive confident.

Some arrive terrified.

What they all have in common is that they're entering a world they've never experienced before.

Too often we expect young people to understand workplace culture, unwritten rules and professional expectations without ever being taught them.

When they ask questions, they're seen as inexperienced.

When they make mistakes, they're criticised.

When they lose confidence, we wonder why.

The reality is that many young people are trying to navigate workplaces where bullying, exclusion, humiliation and coercive behaviours can hide in plain sight.

Good workplaces don't just train people to do a job.

They help people learn, grow and become part of a team.

Patience isn't weakness.

Mentoring isn't hand-holding.

Support isn't lowering standards.

It's how confident, capable workers are built.

If we want resilient adults, we need supportive workplaces.

If we want strong teams, we need strong leadership.

Every expert started as a beginner.

Every skilled worker was once the person asking questions.
Bridge To Justice has written an article exploring the transition from education into the workplace, the challenges many young people face and why workplace culture matters more than we often realise.

Article in comments.

15/06/2026

💜 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐄𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐃𝐚𝐲 - 15 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞 💜

When people think of elder abuse, they often think of bruises.

The reality is often far more hidden.

Elder abuse can be:

▪ Financial abuse
▪ Coercive control
▪ Predatory marriage
▪ Psychological abuse
▪ Sexual abuse
▪ Physical abuse
▪ Neglect
▪ Isolation from family and friends
▪ Misuse of Powers of Attorney
▪ Undue influence over Wills and inheritance
▪ Manipulation of medication, care or decision-making

Many victims never report what is happening.

Some are frightened.

Some are dependent on the very person causing the harm.

Some do not realise they are being abused.

Others are simply not believed.

One of the greatest misconceptions is that abuse only happens to vulnerable older people.

In reality, abuse often begins long before anyone recognises it.

It may start with trust.

Friendship.

A helping hand.

A new relationship.

A person who appears kind, caring and generous.

By the time concerns are raised, the abuse may have been hidden in plain sight for months or even years.

Today is a reminder that safeguarding is not just about responding to harm.

It is about recognising the patterns that allow harm to happen in the first place.

Every older person deserves dignity.

Every older person deserves respect.

Every older person deserves to live free from abuse, exploitation and fear.

Let's raise awareness.

Let's ask questions.

Let's look beyond appearances.

Because elder abuse is often far more than what we can see.

15/06/2026

🚩 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬.

Most people picture an elderly person being persuaded into a marriage shortly before their death.

Those cases exist.

The problem is that predatory relationships can affect people of any age.

They can begin online.

Through social media.

Old friendships.

Shared interests.

Work.

Community groups.

The wedding is often not the beginning.

It's the point at which people start looking.

Long before the marriage takes place, trust may have been built, reputations established, vulnerabilities identified and dependency created.

The outcome doesn't always end in inheritance after death.

Sometimes it ends in financial loss.

Sometimes lost homes.

Sometimes fractured families.

Sometimes devastated children.

Sometimes years spent rebuilding a life that was never what it appeared to be.

The predator may move on.

The consequences often remain.

The wedding is often the point at which people start looking.

The predator started much earlier.

If this pattern feels familiar, Bridge to Justice may be able to help identify the wider picture and support you in understanding what may have happened.

Check out our latest article at the link below:
https://bridgetojustice.im/the-predatory-pathway/

13/06/2026

𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 -𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲

The victim often sees the pattern.

The child often sees the pattern.

The perpetrator certainly sees the pattern.

The system often sees only fragments.

This is one of the biggest challenges in cases involving coercive control, safeguarding concerns and family court disputes.

Trauma can make victims appear emotional, fearful and overwhelmed.

Strategic abusers can appear calm, credible and cooperative.

If professionals focus only on presentation rather than patterns, that appearance is mistaken for reality.

The question should never be:

“Who appears more believable?”

The question should be:

“What does the pattern show?”

Coercive control is not an incident.

It’s a pattern.



https://bridgetojustice.im/articles/

12/06/2026

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐢𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐰.

The problem is that nobody connected everything.

Far too often, families are told after a tragedy that there were no warning signs.

Then they discover concerns had been raised.

Notes had been made.

Meetings had taken place.

People had seen pieces of what was happening.

The problem was that nobody put those pieces together.

Whether it's coercive control, elder financial abuse, safeguarding concerns or vulnerability, harm rarely appears out of nowhere.

It develops over time.

The warning signs are often there.

The pattern is often there.

The challenge is recognising it before it's too late.

Have you ever experienced a situation where different people knew different parts of the story, but nobody seemed to see the whole picture?

To read more on this go to our website articles at bridgetojustice.im

04/06/2026

𝐃𝐢𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐁𝐂 𝐓𝐰𝐨 𝐝𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬?

A pilot risked his life.

Parents of seriously ill children donate money they can barely afford.

Celebrities lend their names and reputations.

Thousands of people believe they are helping.

Most people see a charity scandal.

We saw something else.

We saw vulnerability harvesting.

Not the harvesting of weakness.

The harvesting of compassion.

The harvesting of trust.

The harvesting of hope.

The Netflix documentary The Mother of All Cons raises uncomfortable questions, not just about money, but about dependency, narrative control, safeguarding and the hidden costs paid by those caught inside a powerful story.

Perhaps the biggest question isn't who was deceived.

Perhaps it's who was vulnerable.

And what happens when trust itself becomes the resource being harvested?

We've explored these themes in our latest article:

𝐕𝐮𝐥𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲

Read more here:
https://bridgetojustice.im/vulnerability-harvesting-the-story-behind-the-story/

We'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐚 𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭, 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐫 𝐯𝐮𝐥𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥 𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧?

03/06/2026

𝐒𝐎𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐀, 𝐀𝐈 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐕𝐔𝐋𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐕𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆:

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐇𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐒

Online exploitation is changing.

It’s no longer always the obvious romance message.

It’s no longer always the fake investment opportunity.

Sometimes it looks like support.

Sometimes it looks like advocacy.

Sometimes it looks like a person who says exactly what a wounded person needs to hear:

“I believe you.”

“I understand.”

“I can help you fight the system.”

For people who have been ignored, blamed, abused, isolated or failed by professionals, those words can feel like safety.

That is the danger.

We are moving from romance scams, through pig-butchering style grooming, into something wider.

At Bridge to Justice, we call it:

𝐕𝐮𝐥𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠.

It's the gathering of wounded, frightened or unsupported people into spaces where their pain, trust, documents, money and need for justice can be studied and exploited.

The emotional hook is recognition.

The promise is justice.

The risk is access.

The harm can be devastating.

This doesn't mean every online helper is unsafe. Many are genuine and doing important work.

But we have to ask harder questions.

Who is behind the page?

Are they qualified?

Are they insured?

Are they accountable?

Do they have safeguarding policies?

Do they explain their fees?

Do they have a website?

Are they moving vulnerable people into private messages too quickly?

Are they using the language of justice to gain access to pain, evidence, trust and money?

At Bridge To Justice, we believe this needs to be named, recognised and challenged.

Because where vulnerable people gather, predators may follow.

And in the age of social media and AI, the hunting ground has changed.

Read more about this on the Bridge To Justice website:

https://bridgetojustice.im/social-media-ai-and-vulnerability-harvesting-the-new-hunting-ground-for-predators/

01/06/2026

𝐀𝐬 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐕𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐬 𝐀𝐬𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐩, 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐅𝐚𝐫 𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐖𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐞?

More victims and families are now turning to Bridge To Justice for help.

Some don’t know where to start.

Some aren’t even sure if what’s happened to them “counts”.

They just know something’s felt wrong for a long time.

They’ve been frightened.

They’ve been controlled.

They’ve been ignored.

They’ve been blamed.

They’ve been made to feel like they’re the problem.

Some have tried to explain it before and felt nobody really got it.

So it feels like the right time to look back and ask:

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐟𝐚𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐝𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐚𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐞?

At the start of 2025, on the Isle of Man, it was reported that more adults were being referred to Victim Support.

In 2024, there were 608 adult referrals.

297 of those were linked to domestic abuse.

That was a big rise from the year before.

That really matters.

It means more people are speaking out.

It means more people are asking for help.

It means domestic abuse isn’t being hidden quite as easily as it once was.

The Domestic Abuse Act 2020 came into force in January 2023.

That law recognised domestic abuse, including 𝐂𝐎𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐈𝐕𝐄 and 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 behaviour.

That was important.

It was a big step. Huge even.

The problem is, a law on paper doesn’t help much if people can’t get justice in real life.

At Bridge To Justice, we’re seeing the same thing again and again.

People describing patterns.

Control.

Fear.

Financial abuse.

Stalking.

Harassment.

Threats.

Post-separation abuse.

Parental Alienation, children being used as weapons.

Families being turned against each other.

Victims being made to look like the problem.

The trouble is, systems break these patterns into tiny pieces.

One text.

One argument.

One police call.

One incident.

One “civil matter”.

One “not enough evidence”.

One “not in the public interest”.

That’s how the full picture gets lost.

Domestic abuse isn’t one big event.

It’s a drip, drip, drip of control.

It can happen over months or years.

It doesn’t always leave bruises.

It can destroy a person.

It can destroy a family network too.

So the real question isn’t only whether more people are reporting abuse.

The real question is what happens when they do.

Are they listened to properly?

Are police looking at the whole pattern?

Are children being seen as victims too?

Is financial abuse being taken seriously?

Is coercive control being understood in practice?

Are victims told clearly why a case is closed?

Are they told how to challenge that decision?

People shouldn’t need to be legal experts to ask for justice.

They shouldn’t need to explain trauma neatly.

They shouldn’t be made to feel stupid, difficult or unworthy because they can’t describe years of abuse in one tidy sentence.

More people are speaking out now.

That’s progress.

Now we need to make sure the system actually understands what the people are saying.

A referral isn’t justice.

A law isn’t protection unless it’s used properly.

Speaking out is brave.

Being heard properly is the bit the system still needs to prove.

Are you trying to be heard?

Have you been told it’s “not in the public interest”?

Have you been told it’s “a civil matter”?

Have you been told there’s “not enough evidence”?

Have you tried to explain what’s been happening, only to be made to feel like it was your fault?

Have you been made to wonder if you misjudged the abuse?

Have you felt believed one moment, then slowly pushed into thinking you were making too much of it?

Have you tried to explain years of control, only to see it broken down into one text, one row, one police call or one “incident”?

That’s what happens when systems are not trained properly to understand coercive control.

That’s what happens when lived experience is missing from training.

That’s what happens when tools like DASH are relied on as though they can see the whole picture, when they can’t.

DASH may ask questions.

It may tick boxes.

It may help identify some immediate risks.

It does not capture the slow drip of coercive control.

It does not show the fear behind the silence.

It does not show financial abuse.

It does not show post-separation abuse.

It does not show children being used as weapons.

It does not show the way a victim has been worn down over months or years.

That’s why people are still being missed.

Domestic abuse has no age limit.

It doesn’t only happen to women.

It doesn’t only happen to men.

It doesn’t always happen in the way people expect.

There is abuse.

There is a law.

There are ways to see the pattern.

At Bridge To Justice, we work with people who have lived experience and people who understand how coercive control works in real life.

We help piece the pattern together.

We look at the bigger picture.

We help people put their case into a clear, organised and evidence-based format.

Not because victims should have to fight this hard.

Because they still do.

If you feel like nobody is seeing what’s really happened, we see you.

We hear you.

We’ll help you find the pattern.

We’ll help you fight your corner, with you.

31/05/2026

A WORLD TORN APART

A torn photograph.

A broken family.

A life changed forever.

People often think domestic abuse is about bruises, black eyes, or physical violence.

But some of the most devastating abuse leaves no visible marks at all.

Financial abuse, coercive control, manipulation, isolation, intimidation, narrative shaping and smear campaigns can destroy lives just as effectively as physical violence.

In Lin Corlett’s case, the final months of her life became a battle she should never have had to fight.

What began as financial gain became something much bigger.

Relationships were manipulated.

Trusted people were influenced.

The narrative was carefully controlled.

Those who cared most were portrayed as the problem, while the real harm remained hidden in plain sight.

This is how coercive control works.

It is not simply about controlling one person.

It is about controlling the story.

Controlling who is believed.
Controlling access to support.
Controlling information.
Controlling outcomes.

Far too often, systems fail to recognise these patterns.

Professionals focus on individual incidents whilst missing the wider picture.

Friends, family, organisations and even authorities are drawn into a false narrative without realising they are helping the abuse continue.

This is what professional enabling looks like and why victims are left feeling unheard, isolated and powerless.

At Bridge to Justice, we help people piece the story back together.

We look beyond individual events and identify the patterns.

We help victims, families and professionals understand how coercive control, financial abuse, emotional abuse, elder abuse and other forms of domestic abuse operate in the real world.

Because domestic abuse is not always physical.

It can affect men, women, older people and children.

Children are victims too, even when they are never directly targeted.

They see it.
They feel it.
They carry it.

Domestic abuse doesn't always leave bruises but it always leaves scars.

The first step towards justice is recognising the pattern.

https://bridgetojustice.im/

26/05/2026

Young people aged 13 to 17 experiencing the highest rates of domestic abuse should concern every single one of us.

What is often still missed though, is that adolescent domestic abuse is rarely simple or straightforward.

Behind many cases sits a wider pattern involving trauma, coercive control, emotional immaturity, social media pressure, family dysfunction, learned behaviours and sometimes retaliatory or reactive behaviour from vulnerable young people themselves.

Too many systems still assess incidents in isolation rather than stepping back and understanding the full context and pattern surrounding the relationship.

That risks genuine victims being missed whilst other vulnerable young people are labelled, criminalised or psychologically damaged without proper understanding of what is actually happening beneath the surface.

This is exactly why expert-led training matters.

Not tick-box training.Not assumptions.Not one-size-fits-all responses.

Young people need safeguarding approaches that properly recognise coercive control, trauma, family environments and the complexity of adolescent relationships before lives are permanently affected.

The cycle will not reduce until the understanding improves.

At 15, James said he realised he was too young to get justice after he was abused by his girlfriend. He is now joining calls to lower the legislative age of domestic abuse victims. Harriette Boucher reports