THE North-East will be strongly represented at a domestic violence conference in London today.

Three charitable projects in the region are giving presentations and the main speaker is from the University of Sunderland.

The conference, Domestic Violence: The Bitter Legacy for Women and Children, is being held in London and follows the launch of a new Barnardo's campaign, Bitter Legacy, launched last week.

It calls for the Government to safeguard the emotional wellbeing of children caught in the crossfire of domestic violence.

Three projects run by Barnardo's North-East, which have carried out work in the field, will give presentations and host workshops.

B76, a young people's drop-in centre in Hartlepool will show a video on domestic violence, researched, written, acted and directed by a group of young people.

Mosaic, based in Newcastle, works with children who have been sexually abused and will give a presentation on the subject.

There will also be a workshop on working with violent men and getting them to take responsibility for their actions, presented by Bridgeway, a project in Middlesbrough.

The guest speaker at the conference will be Professor Catherine Itzin, from the University of Sunderland, who is working on a project assessing the mental health implications of child sexual abuse and domestic violence.