The charity helping domestic abuse victims has warned that the lockdown “could cause abusive behaviour to get worse”.

Jewish Women’s Aid chief executive Naomi Dickson said “women are scared of being trapped at home with the person abusing them. They want clarification and more support about what to do in this situation.

“Because our support services are continuing, we are offering tailored safety advice and reassurance. But we are very concerned about the impact of coronavirus measures on our clients, who are already very vulnerable.

“The wider domestic abuse sector is expecting a surge in demand and we are focusing on preparing for that.”

Client services manager Karen Lewis added that caseworkers were receiving calls relating to household isolation.

“Now that shuls and schools have closed, an abuser will be in the house more and children will witness abuse more frequently.

“In cases where the abuser is no longer in the home, they might refuse to return the children to their mother, falsely citing lockdown.

“There are lots of ways for an abusive man to misuse measures meant to keep us safe to coerce and control a woman.”

All core JWA services are continuing to operate, including its domestic abuse and sexual violence helplines.

The organisation is accelerating the development of its web chat service to give women the option of communicating with JWA in a less detectable way than a phone call.

It is also organising financial support for clients to help them with the additional cost of Pesach.

JWA’s children’s therapists are maintaining phone contact with those they are supporting and have provided them with notebooks and other resources to help them continue therapeutic activities.