By Lucy Caulkett-
Richard Madeley has honourably apologised for giving “dangerous” advice in a newspaper column.
Madeley was accused of undermining the concern by one of the paper’s readers fears that their neighbour might be suffering domestic violence.
Writing in Saturday’s Daily Telegraph, Madeley told the reader: “If they were going to kill each other, they’d have done it by now.”
On Tuesday, the TV presenter said he was “so annoyed” with himself for having “misjudged” his response.
“My critics today are absolutely right,” he wrote.
“I misjudged this one, tonally and in content. So annoyed with self.”
Madeley added that he had “reached out” to various people to apologise, and that he would address the topic in his column next weekend.
The letter written by an anonymous reader in Bedfordshire, was printed under the heading: “What shall I do about my noisy nocturnal neighbours?”
It described “bangs and crashes and shouting” coming from the property “most nights”.
“I worry that something could come to light in the future and I would feel guilty because I did nothing, despite a gut feeling that things are not right,” the letter went on.
Madeley responded by saying that: “If some sort of serious abuse was involved you’d have noticed it (in the form of black eyes, cut lips and the like, or late night visits from the police after drunken 999 calls).”He concluded: “If they were going to kill each other, they’d have done it by now.”
Madeley’s comments drew criticism from a number of charities including Standing Together Against Domestic Violence and Refuge.
“This is appalling and dangerous advice,” tweeted Refuge, demanding a retraction.
“Women live in fear of their partners across the country – many are isolated and alone; Literally trapped. Women’s lives depend on people calling out abuse.”