EUROPE'S busiest court is struggling to cope with a 1300-strong backlog of domestic abuse cases.

Dozens of battered women and men are being forced to wait four and a half months for justice as the city's court reaches breaking point.

The latest figures, ­obtained by the Evening Times, reveal there are 1385 domestic abuse cases waiting to go to trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court.

Senior prosecutors will hold extra "daily trial courts" throughout next month in a bid to deal with the crisis.

Scottish Court Service bosses claim the ­waiting time for a domestic abuse case in Glasgow from its first calling to full trial has been cut from 22 weeks to 19 weeks.

But victims' advocates stress that this is still too long and their work is made much harder if cases are dragged out.

Graeme Pearson MSP, ­Labour's justice spokesman, said cases were progressing at a "snail's pace".

However, court chiefs ­­defended their track record and pledged to continue ­cutting waiting periods. An SCS spokeswoman said: "We have introduced an additional domestic abuse trial court every Friday to the existing court programme in Glasgow.

"And during October there will also be an additional daily trial court to tackle business volumes.

"The latest figure for the time between domestic abuse cases calling and trial in Glasgow is currently 19 weeks, down from 22 weeks in January.

"For an adjourned trial the figure is 10 weeks."

Specialist domestic abuse courts now account for a quarter of summary cases that go through Glasgow Sheriff Court.

First set up in 2004, the city domestic abuse pilot was praised in a Scottish Government report in 2007 and followed by an Edinburgh pilot in 2012.

As of January 10, 90 domestic abuse trials are outstanding in Edinburgh compared to 1385 waiting to go to trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court.

Under the single force, the number of domestic violence incidents leapt from 39% to 54% of total crimes, meaning hundreds of extra cases.

The spokeswoman added: "While the long-term trend in crime is down, there have been significant increases in domestic abuse and sexual offence cases, which ­reflect more proactive ­approaches by police and prosecutors as well as ­increased confidence among victims in reporting these crimes.

"The Scottish Court ­Service is committed to ­reducing waiting time for domestic abuse cases and are continuing to work with colleagues across the criminal justice system to achieve this."

rebecca.gray@eveningtimes.co.uk