Revealed: how family courts allow abusers to torment their victims
Revealed: how family courts allow abusers to torment their victims
Guardian investigation shows how women are often cross-examined by violent ex-partners in secretive civil court hearings
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Zoe Dronfield, who set up a support group for women, at home in Coventry. Photograph: David Sillitoe/the Guardian
Violent and abusive men are being allowed to confront and cross-examine their former partners in secretive court hearings that fail to protect women who are victims of abuse, a Guardian investigation has found. Mothers involved in family court hearings have given graphic descriptions of the “torture” of being questioned by abusive men – a practice still allowed in civil cases but banned in criminal courts. They describe how former partners can make repeated, sometimes spurious, court applications to continue the harassment.
In one case, a mother was cross-examined for two hours by her ex-husband despite him being the subject of a restraining order to keep him away from her. Sarah, whose name has been changed, said: “I thought, why does the judge allow him to continue this abuse? I had escaped a really violent relationship, it was a very hard thing to do, and the court threw me back into harm’s way constantly. It was torture for me.”
Family courts cases are held in private in England and Wales. The testimony of witnesses, documentary evidence, expert statements and judicial decisions are mostly still secret. Women who spoke to the Guardian knew they were at risk of being held in contempt of court but said they wanted to shine a light on the secretive processes.
The revelations have prompted one MP to demand a review of the way the court system operates and a change in the law. Peter Kyle, Labour MP for Hove and Portslade, said the situation amounted to the “abuse and brutalisation” of women by the legal system. “Mothers need the protection of the law and they need to know in advance that the system is there to look out and protect their interests,” he said. “It only takes one woman to be placed in a situation where she can be legally be asked by the man who has violently abused her; ‘When did you last have sex?’. That only has to happen once to realise that the system is corrupted and domestic abuse is going on in our system in the courtroom.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/dec/22/revealed-how-family-courts-allow-abusers-to-torment-their-victims
