"Perpetrator programmes are not a suitable option for all abusers," she said. "Most abusers minimise their behaviour and the harm it has caused, but those who deny it altogether are not going to make much progress."

Neil Blacklock, development director at Respect, an organisation that delivers services for both victims and perpetrators of domestic violence, explained that before someone was accepted onto a course, they assess the likelihood of the abuser changing his behaviour. If Saatchi referred himself to a programme "he would be assessed like anyone else", he told me. 

The move towards mediation is another approach designed to avoid the courts. In April, police data for England and Wales released after a Freedom of Information request by Labour, revealed that in 2012 "community resolutions" had been used in 10,000 cases of serious violence and 2,488 cases of domestic violence. Offenders avoid a criminal record because they do not have to go to court nor do they receive a police caution, which would also appear in police records. Instead they agree to take part in restorative justice measures, which may involve apologising to or compensating their victim.

Police in England and Wales receive half a million complaints of domestic violence a year but prosecutions are sparse. Police consider it almost impossible to get such cases to court because the victim so often decides to withdraw charges against a partner, whether voluntarily or as the result of intimidation. Thus the onus usually falls entirely on the victim to press charges. And, of course, many more incidents are probably never reported at all.

Annual death rates as a result of domestic violence are remarkably constant: on average, two women die in England and Wales each week at the hands of a former or current partner. Despite the serious nature of the crime, there is little support for tougher measures to tackle the abuse of women. 

The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, showed his lack of understanding of domestic abuse during a discussion on the radio shortly after the Nigella story broke. Asked during his Call Clegg programme on LBC Radio how he would have responded had he witnessed the incident, he said: "I don't know what happened. When you see a couple having an argument...most people, you know, just assume that the couple will resolve it themselves."