Rural Abuse Survivors Demand Better Support as Farming Life Can Hide 'Terror and Horror'

Growing up on a farm in mid-Wales, Tracy Lewis developed a deep affection for the animals around her. But behind that pastoral setting, she says, she endured years of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her farmer father. Now 48 and a farmer herself, Tracy is joining other domestic abuse survivors in calling on governments to improve support for victims in rural areas.

Tracy, who was raised on a farm in Llanbister in Powys, has given the BBC permission to share her story. She described her childhood as a period of "torture" rather than the idyllic country upbringing many people imagine when they picture the mid-Wales countryside.

One memory captures the severity of her situation. When she was eight years old, she recalled, her father pulled her from bed by her hair to help with lambing. Walking past the bathroom, she saw her mother with blood covering her face and a broken nose. Her mother, who had been crying, told her she had to get the lamb out or "we're both going to die."

Tracy said the animals she loved were sometimes weaponized as a means of control or as a trigger for violence. She remembered being beaten when an animal died, while her mother was harmed when an animal fell ill. The experience, she said, felt like slavery: the family loved farming and the animals, but they were isolated and trapped.

The isolation of rural life is a recurring theme in her account. Tracy, a mother of three, said neighbours in farming communities are always willing to help, but abuse can be concealed with extraordinary ease. In tight-knit areas where everyone knows everyone, she added, what happens behind closed doors tends to stay there.

For Tracy, the reality was "terror and horror." Her mother, she said, suffered the worst of the abuse and did her best to protect the children, but was completely isolated because the farm was her entire life. Tracy sometimes considered contacting ChildLine because she was so frightened of her father.

She also pointed to structural pressures that make it harder for farming families to speak out. Farm businesses are often passed down through generations and depend on markets and trade with others, meaning that exposing abuse could threaten a family's livelihood.

Beyond physical and emotional violence, Tracy alleged that her father, who is now dead, financially abused her. She said she was led to believe the farm would be passed down to her. She worked on it for two decades and paid rent to him on that understanding. After discovering the farm had not been left to her in his will, she said she had to fight to keep ownership of it.

Tracy is one of roughly 11 million people living in rural areas, accounting for more than 15% of the UK population. The National Rural Crime Network has warned that the true scale of rural abuse often remains hidden, with survivors facing more barriers to reaching support than those in urban settings.

Those barriers are illustrated by the experience of Rhianon Bragg, who was held at gunpoint for eight hours at her smallholding in Gwynedd, north Wales, in 2019. Her former partner, Gareth Wyn Jones, ambushed her with a gun. She screamed, but knew no one would hear her because of how remotely she lived.

Rhianon recalled several moments that night when she believed she would never see her children again. She spent the ordeal bargaining for her life. She has since spoken in depth about what happened as part of a new BBC iPlayer series, "It Happened To Me," and has worked with police and other agencies to address domestic abuse and stalking in rural areas.

She said the abuse transformed her home from a place of peaceful seclusion into one of vulnerable isolation, and that living rurally created additional obstacles. Among the issues she highlighted were poor internet connectivity and long distances from police stations, both of which can delay or prevent victims from seeking help.

Rhianon has called for all UK and Welsh government domestic abuse policies to be "rural proofed." Without that, she argued, people in rural areas will remain at a disadvantage, on the "back foot" when it comes to being treated fairly and accessing protection.

The UK government said it is working to address disparities between rural and urban areas, while the Welsh government said the challenges facing rural victims will be considered as part of its next national strategy. For campaigners and survivors, those commitments will be measured against whether practical gaps — from connectivity to policing reach — are actually closed.

In the meantime, Tracy continues to speak about her experiences in the hope that others in farming communities will recognize they are not alone. She urged anyone affected by abuse to seek help, stressing that the closeness of rural life, which can make abuse easier to hide, should never be allowed to silence those who suffer it.