Mum of Emily Drouet speaks on Women's safety
Ahead of our 'We need to talk about Women's safety' event tonight, the Mum of Emily Drouet - an Aberdeen student who took her life after enduring horrific abuse from her boyfriend - says we need to start having conversations with our children to help cut out toxic behavior.
Tonight we join our sister stations for 'We need to talk about Women's safety' a forum to discuss what needs to be done to make a society safer for women.
It comes four weeks after the disappearance of Sarah Everard - later found dead, she was just trying to walk home from a friend's house.
Ahead of the event, Northsound spoke to Fiona Drouet MBE - the Mum of Aberdeen student Emily, who took her own life in 2016, at the age of 18, after enduring horrific abuse from her boyfriend.
Fiona told us that "We we are looking at men's violence against women, we need to look at exactly what we are saying in that - it's men's violence against women - and tackle that at route"
Fiona says that we should be looking to educate young people - and in particular young men - about relationships from an early age to prevent toxic behavior becoming ingrained.
She said: "I'd like to see more parents starting to have the discussions with their children about healthy relationships, healthy sex, what is normal, what is abusive
"Having conversations that although we may find them a little bit uncomfortable - they are incredibly important in shaping who our sons may be in the future"
Speaking about her own son and his friends, Fiona believes men don't automatically treat women in the way her daughter was treated, it's something that is taught by surroundings.
She said:
"I often look at my son who is 14 and his friends and I think they are really lovely young boys, and I often wonder at what age do they turn into these abusive men.
"I think the answer is there, by looking at them when they are younger and stopping these behaviors manifesting in the first place."
When it comes to Emily's story, Fiona believes there were multiple people who knew about her daughter's abuse and never spoke up or sought help.
But she doesn't believe they are bad people, but does believe education is again the route to changing this in the future, so that young people are confident in spotting abuse, and have outlets to raise issues with.
Fiona said: "In Emily's case we saw lots of people that knew what was happening to her, they knew that he was abusing Emily at university
"But all of them were too scared to come forward, and that is not because they are bad people, a lot of them are really incredible young people"
She continued "Sadly they live with that for the rest of their life
"We lost Emily five years ago this month, and still they ask themselves 'why did we not just speak out?
"And I think the majority of them didn't speak out, out of fear."
You'll be able to watch our discussion on women’s safety and what we can do to implement change on Closer's YouTube from 8pm tonight.
Trigger warning: You might find subjects in this discussion distressing. If you need any help and support you can call the Samaritans on 116 123.
If you need to report instances of harassment or abuse and feel comfortable to do so you can contact the Met Police, Police Scotland or the National Domestic Abuse helpline.