MANCHESTER United's Old Trafford ground has played host to a conference aimed at stamping out domestic violence across the North West.

The seminar was organised by the region's police forces, including Greater Manchester and Lancashire, and covered issues such as the new domestic violence legislation, the practicalities of dealing with incidents of domestic violence, and what more is needed from Government to tackle the issue.

Assistant Chief Constable David Whatton said: "The police forces of the North West take domestic violence extremely seriously and are determined to work together to proactively tackle this issue.

"Greater Manchester Police has piloted a number of initiatives over the last year which have proved very successful in improving the way we respond to domestic violence incidents and the conference was a great opportunity to share best practice with other forces and agencies to determine what is working in other areas which hopefully we can share and take on board.

"We also want to send out a clear message to offenders that domestic violence will not be tolerated under any circumstance."