"Invisible" Risk Factors That Indicate Escalating Behaviour in Youths

Understanding the patterns that professionals and victims often miss:

🚩 DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim & Offender Role) A perpetrator denies or minimises abuse, despite clear evidence, and deflects blame by positioning their victim as the problem.

🚩 Verbal Threats of Violence to Intimidate or Gain Compliance Threats to injure or kill, especially with a weapon, should never be dismissed, regardless of a child’s age.

🛑 Why this is risky: 1 in 2 perpetrators follow through on threats. Children using this tactic have likely observed it in their environment, at home, in social settings, or online.

🚩 Confrontational & Abusive Behaviour with a Diagnosis of Neurodiversity or Autism

🛑 Why this must not be overlooked: It’s easy to assume that a child "doesn’t understand" their actions due to neurodiversity or mental health challenges. However, most children, regardless of diagnosis, recognise that their behaviour yields specific results.

Even if a child truly lacks control over their responses, if their behaviour poses a risk to others, they must be closely monitored and supervised to prevent harm.

"Invisible" Risk Factors in Child Contact Cases

Understanding the patterns that professionals and victims often miss:

🚩 DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim & Offender Role) The perpetrating parent denies or minimises abuse, despite clear evidence, and deflects blame by positioning the victim as the problem.

🛑 This happens frequently in both criminal and family court cases.

🚩 Current or Historical Drug/Alcohol Dependency 🛑 Why this is risky: High-functioning addicts can temporarily abstain from manipulating outcomes, only to revert to old behaviours once scrutiny fades or pressure builds.

From a safeguarding perspective, a parent under the influence puts children at risk, especially when there's a known or suspected history of coercive control or aggression.

One tragic example is Simon Vickers, who was heavily intoxicated when he fatally stabbed his 15-year-old daughter, Scarlett. The incident was described as "play-fighting gone wrong," but evidence suggests otherwise. After Scarlett made a playful comment, Vickers responded with hostility. What followed wasn’t an accident, it was an act fuelled by anger, alcohol, and unchecked aggression.

In contact disputes, a history of substance misuse increases the risk of revenge motives and last-resort thinking.

Alcohol is a mood enhancer, it amplifies whatever a person is already feeling. In Vickers’ case, it may have escalated his underlying rage into a fatal, primal reaction.

🚩 Military Background and Escalated Risk in Contact or Abuse Cases

When a perpetrator has military or armed police training, the risk level increases significantly. These individuals are trained in combat, often desensitised to violence, and may possess the tactical skills to control, manipulate, or harm with devastating precision.

Here are three deeply tragic cases that highlight the urgency of recognising this pattern:

🔴 Kyle Clifford Kyle Clifford brutally murdered his ex-girlfriend Louise Hunt, her mother Carol, and sister Hannah. His actions weren’t spontaneous, they were calculated and premeditated. Clifford deceived Carol at the door to gain access and lulled Louise into a false sense of security by pretending to accept the breakup. In my professional analysis (Available in the full accredited training), I explore how Louise’s deep sense of fear and uncertainty was rooted in Clifford’s military background and prior controlling behaviour. Her instincts were tragically correct.

🔴 Trimaan Dhillon A Lance Corporal in the Royal Regiment of Scotland, Dhillon stalked and murdered Alice Ruggles after a campaign of coercive control. He used his military cyber skills to hack her emails, social media, and phone, maintaining power and surveillance even after she tried to break free. Alice’s case is a chilling example of how psychological warfare, combined with military training, can escalate to lethal outcomes.

🔴 Jaysley BeckRoyal Artillery Gunner Jaysley Beck, 19, was found dead in her barracks after enduring sexual assault and relentless coercive behaviour by a senior sergeant.

An inquest found that the Army failed to act despite clear warning signs. Jaysley was subjected to ongoing harassment and silencing tactics that made escape impossible. The inescapable environment and trauma contributed to her suicide.

Since her death, many other women have come forward revealing similar experiences of sexual assault, coercion, and rape while serving, often by over-entitled male colleagues abusing their power.

🚩 Extreme Fear in the Victim 🛑 Why this matters: Even when a victim can’t fully articulate their fear, it’s rarely without cause. Often, it’s driven by the primal survival response.

Fear can be triggered by subtle cues, a look, a tone, a shift in body language. Perpetrators often plant these seeds of uncertainty early on by sharing disturbing stories or demonstrating extreme behaviours. The conscious mind may dismiss them, but the subconscious stores them as warnings.

A victim doesn’t need visible injuries or direct threats for their fear to be valid. In fact, heightened fear often signals an escalation and may also increase suicide risk.

Fear should never be ignored, rationalised, or minimised.