Family courts urged to change stance towards fathers who abuse women

Family courts need to stop believing the “myth” that men with a history of abusing women can be good fathers, an MP has said.

Labour’s Angela Smith said the “discredited” way of thinking has no place in the justice system, arguing that research shows a frequent link between domestic abuse and violence against children.

Ms Smith (Penistone and Stocksbridge) also relayed to the Commons the heart-breaking story of her constituent Claire Throssell, whose two sons were killed by their father in October 2014.

MPs heard the boys – Jack, 12, and Paul, nine – were “enticed” up to the attic after being promised trains and track to build a model railway during a visit to their father.

But when in the attic, their father lit 16 separate fires around the barricaded house, the Commons was told.

Ms Throssell watched from the public gallery as Ms Smith informed MPs about what occurred and called for changes to the family law courts.

Leading a backbench business debate, Ms Smith said: “There is the ongoing assumption that men who are abusive towards women can nevertheless be good fathers.

“This belief, this myth is unbelievably enduring and flies in the face of the available evidence.

“Research indicates in fact that there are many serious negative impacts for children arising from domestic abuse, including children becoming aggressive or conversely over-compliant or becoming withdrawn, anxious and fearful.

“One study also found that over 34% of under 18s who had lived with domestic violence had also been abused or neglected by a parent or guardian, and I don’t see why that should surprise anybody.

“Surely this out-dated, discredited way of thinking has no place in our family courts.

“Surely given the ongoing incidents of violence against children and the frequent link with domestic abuse, we need to effectively eradicate this cultural legacy from our family courts.

“The second reason I believe is the ongoing failure on the part of the statutory agencies and the family court judiciary to understand that domestic abuse frequently involves coercive control.

“Abuse is about power and control. That’s why it’s not surprising that fathers who beat up women can also abuse children as well.”

A motion tabled by Ms Smith and other MPs, including former Cabinet minister Maria Miller, urges the Government to review the treatment of victims of domestic abuse in family law courts.

Conservative Mrs Miller told the debate: “It has to be right that victims should be protected when giving evidence in court and there can be few members in this place content with seeing alleged abusers cross-examine those affected by domestic violence.

“This has to be re-examined and re-examined urgently.

“We need to put an end to survivors of domestic abuse being cross-examined by their alleged abusers in court.”

Jess Phillips, Labour MP for Yardley in Birmingham who used to manage a charity supporting victims of domestic abuse, said family courts are “incredibly secretive” and it is important to “flood some much-needed light onto that darkness”.

She said that while the UK has some relatively good laws to tackle domestic abuse and violence, “we fail time and time again in how we implement those laws”.

Ms Phillips warned that Britain’s family courts could be breaching women’s human rights and called not for “warm words” but for “hard actions” by the Government.

She said: “It is important to state that currently we could be considered to be breaking the law on these issues in the UK as a member, currently, for now, as members of the European Union.

“We signed up to specific directives on protecting victims and one directive explicitly states that we will uphold the protection of victims within our court system and contact with offenders must be avoided, and therefore all new court buildings that are built… must have separate waiting areas.”

She added: “Every single day in the UK we are breaching that.”

Victims are often left in the same waiting area as their abusers and even have to be cross-examined by them in family courts as a result of legal aid cuts which has left more parties representing themselves, she said.

Ms Phillips said: “In the criminal court this would be considered a severe breach of human rights.”

And she said family courts are often used by abusers to continue their harassment.

She told the Chamber: “There is a pervasive myth that family courts are unfairly biased towards mothers… that is not the case.

“It doesn’t matter how many times you scale up a building dressed as Spiderman, women are still badly treated in our family court system.”

Peter Kyle, MP for Hove, said family courts were “being used to perpetuate the abuse against extremely vulnerable women”.

The Labour MP told the story of one of his constituents, a domestic violence victim, who had been cross examined by her former partner three times in the family courts, given he had chosen to represent himself.

Mr Kyle said: “The man who beat her, who broke her bones, who battered her unconscious and hospitalised her, who was convicted for his crimes, yet still has the right to summon his victim to court on a spurious custody hearing.

“He will never win the case, but that is not the point.

“He is already victorious the very second he steps into the courtroom, because in that instant he gets exactly what he wants, which is to continue to inflict violence and abuse against the woman who has already suffered more than any of us can possibly imagine.

“It should shock everyone that family courts in a way that inflicts, not ends, violence against women.”

Melanie Onn, MP for Grimsby, said the family courts left domestic violence victims feeling like “they are treated with suspicion rather than compassion, and made to feel like the guilty party”.

The Labour MP also pointed to a lack of understanding in family courts, over things such as domestic violence victims having to share a waiting room with their abuser.

She gave the example of one constituent, Rochelle, whose partner used the family courts in order to continue abusing her, Ms Onn said.

She added: “The courts have failed to provide security at their meetings. She was made to sit at the same table in a small room as her former partner.

“He took the opportunity to put horrendous, sexually derogatory comments to her.

“This is a man who had twice put her in hospital whilst she was pregnant. She should never have to be in the same room as him again.

“The lack of sensitivity, awareness and preparedness across state agencies, from the welfare system to family courts, as well as the police and education system, lets down children and victims of domestic violence, and really leaves them feeling like the whole system is working against them.”

Alison Thewliss, the SNP MP for Glasgow Central, told MPs there was a need to examine the issue of “re-victimisation” not just in courts but “right across government”.

She said: “That a Government minister, Lord Freud, could tell me in a meeting that he thought women suffering domestic abuse should just flee is deeply, deeply worrying.

“The Government needs to reflect right across government about how we value women and how we value children and how we make sure that they are protected at every aspect of their lives.”

Justice Minister Dr Phillip Lee admitted that there has been insufficient data on trends within the family justice system but said evidence would form the basis of new policy in the future.

The Government is working with the judiciary to consider what additional protections for vulnerable victims and witnesses may be necessary, he added.

He will also be meeting with Polly Neate, chief executive of Women’s Aid, in the next few weeks.

Dr Lee, a GP, said: “I don’t need to be reminded of the impact of this on people.

“In the last three months I’ve had two cases as a doctor of domestic violence and it is truly shocking when you encounter women in these circumstances and I am determined to do everything I can to improve our management of the cases when they come to the criminal justice system but indeed actually to try and get rid of this scourge that blights our society.

“I am hopeful we can work across the House and indeed beyond as we continue efforts to improve the way the family justice system responds to domestic abuse.”

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