Did your evidence of abuse to yourself matter in family court?

[HelenT2345]

My abusive ex husband has filed a c100 for child contact however did not fill out a c1a on his side.
I have completed a c1a to send back as he was and is still very abusive to me and although has not been physically abusive to our child he has been mentally and I have safeguarding concerns for my child that I can prove.
He was never physically abusive to me but everything else and still post separation abuse up to this day, nothing was ever reported to police or ss.
I have a lot of evidence to back up every concern I am raising but my question is did the court actually take into accountthe abuse to yourself when it came to child contact? If they did or didn't take it into account how did it effect your outcome for child arrangements?

It really depends on how serious the potential harm to the child is seen as being, and whether the evidence points clearly to that and no other possibility.

Abuse of the mother hasn’t in the past been taken into account, this may be slightly changing these days but I doubt it tbh.
But it’s over ten years since we were at the Family Court.

Any GP, other professional, or photographic evidence of your physical
abuse?

abuse is generally only taken into consideration if it’s actually proven as in you have gone to the police. Saying nasty things to someone over text during a divorce will not be sufficient to stop child contact (I know someone who presented text messages as proof and was told this). The threshold for abuse or risk of abuse to the child needs to be met

I was reffered to women's aid for his abuse and that was after separation.

Has the child witnessed it?

Not as much as it should have done.

But he wanted 50/50 and eventually didn’t get that as the court recognised that we couldn't 'co-parent' due to the many examples I was able to give during and post separation, so they gave me majority care and a 'lives with' order. The order minimised the contact between us and when I completed the parent course, they talked a lot about parallel parenting rather than co parenting which helped me a lot.

Can I ask if you don't mind sharing what was he given in the end?

Who referred you to Women’s Aid? Do you have evidence of your contact with them?

I don't wish to disclose that but yes I do

Sadly no
Even with letters from family workers, women's aid log and over 100 page police report
The only difference I guess was a specific public handover location listed in CAO, which didn't prevent me being assaulted again unfortunately

@HelenT2345 I’d get legal advice on this. Courts are focussed on dc and their well being. Personally I’d fight 50:50 for many reasons.

Stability of one main home for dc and ease of seeing school friends etc. Stability as that’s the house and neighbourhood dc knows. Continuity of school, nursery or whatever. You are resident parent so you do child admin. You want him to pay CMS. You certainly can ask that his time with dc is supervised but you need evidence to support this. Focus on dc well being and ensure dc isn’t disadvantaged by witnessing poor behaving ex.

Have you reported any concerns to social services?