DD assaulted by her father

[SkaffenAmtiskaw]

I dropped off my DD (11) for contact with her father this afternoon, she was due to stay with him for a few days until Christmas. A couple of hours later she phoned me in hysterics asking me to pick her up, she said her dad had been verbally and physically abusive (he grabbed her by her scarf and pushed her into a wall). I am too far to go to collect her (it would take me 2 hours to get there) but a very good friend went to pick her up. She is now safe at my friend's and I will go to pick her up in the morning.

I am understandably very upset. My ex was emotionally, financially and eventually physically abusive to me when we were together and we split up when DD was a baby. I never thought he would be physically abusive to her,, otherwise I wouldn't have let her stay with him, but there had been signs lately of some emotional abuse.

Should I report this to the police? After all if a stranger had done this to her, I would. There would be no going back from this, but anyway there is no way she is going back there.

Sorry I am rambling a bit but I am all over the place right now, and just need to let it out.

A man who has a record of abusing his partner and his daughter will NOT get custody of an 11-year-old girl against her wishes and those of her mother. Don't worry Skaffen, that certainly won't happen.

However, I do agree that you should complain about the police dicking around with your statements. There was, last year, a case of a particular police officer who suppressed the statements and distorted the evidence in rape cases - though his motives were not explained it occurred to me that he was either a rapist himself or some sort of MRA nut who didn't think rape should be a crime at all, and there are some police officers who hate women and consider them all to be liars.

Dahlen,

I am slightly aware that as a newcomer I may be feeding a resident troll but.

You said

"Which means that most reports are genuine." That's a complete sentence and a statement of fact. That is not a conclusion you can draw from the data you presented. Hence it is an incorrect statement. It does not MEAN that at all. If you don't like it I suggest you learn to express yourself more accurately in future.

I have communicated with the OP who is far more grounded than you, is aware of her situation and seems to have acted well..

Secondly You can decide that an open documentary which clearly shows children accusing teachers of abuse which later needs to be PROVEN incorrect with CCTV is made up if you like. Perhaps some time talking to some teachers would convince you but I doubt it....you can live in denial of the reality we live in if you wish.

Im sorry you think the word utterance is dismissive, it does not carry that connotation. Hence I can only assume you are looking for offence.

Oh - not properly familiar with the area but I would have thought it was a fine line between. Is DV only relevant to adults? Either way, child protection or DV, I would have expected it to have much higher priority than they seem to have given it. Their confusion over your very straightforward request to take things further is unacceptable.

Clever at hooking you in, those trolls... (crap at everything else tho')

Don't worry SGB I will complain! I'm just wondering whether to complain straight away, or to way until they've dealt with things? I can see pros and cons for both approaches.

I never said it was made up. I said it wasn't peer reviewed and therefore not completely representative. I have no problem believing that children make up accusations against teachers. Not quite comparable to making it up against one's own father though.

You have been told by posters other than me that your post was dismissive and unpleasant. I am not looking for offence. It was already there.

I am not going to reply to any more of your posts as I am too busy floating around in my blissful state of ungroundedness where I believe most children who make claims of abuse are telling the truth and mothers who try to protect them are ill-informed. Shame on me.

Sorry for the derailment Skaffen.

I think in your situation I'd make an informal complaint to the police first. Find out the name of the Sargeant on duty at the time the initial complaint was made and email him/her first. State it's informal and you have no wish to take it further if they can satisfy you things are being dealt with properly. That way you have a written record if they continue to mess you about, but you give them the opportunity to save face by resurrecting the case and dealing with it properly - win/win.

Thanks Dahlen, that seems like a nice sensible approach. How do I find out who was the sergeant on duty? I presume you mean when I first called the police? Do you mean the officers who attended at the time?

i dont have any experience on this, but just wanted to say well done for sticking up for ur girl, like any mother would!! i personally dont understand where the rozzers come from half the time. to me a person being assaulted is abuse regardless who is hit by who, or who is verbally assaulted by who although i do understand why its child protection issue. i see upthread people commenting that your girlie is in a position to make her own choices! im glad to see that people are doing there upmost to keep there kids safe in a world thats full of politcally incorrectness!!

WELL DONE MRS OP!!!

If you know the names of the officers who first came out to your DD, and have the time and date they attended, a call to your local constabulary should be able to get your their Sergeant's name.

Good luck.

I only have the name of one of the officers, but I have both their "shoulder numbers". I'll give it a go!

oh, and thanks mrsL

I am a police officer, and just wanted to offer some help as to why this has turned into a bit of a nightmare!

Incidents that happened in different force areas are a total pain in the butt to report. You would think it would be easy, but it isn't. As an example - you live in London, and went to Liverpool for the weekend. Whilst there you were assaulted. You were unable to report it at the time due to getting medical attention, then having to return to London. You would think that you could walk into your local police station in London and it would be dealt with simply?

No!!

Option a) Your local station refuses to take any details at all as it didn't happen in their force area. They tell you you go and phone Liverpool Police.

Option b) Your local station are quite helpful, take the report and even take a statement from you, then tell you that all the paperwork will be sent to Liverpool. From there you either 1) Never hear anything from Liverpool and they deny ever receiving anything, and your local police can't help as they say they sent it, 2) Keep chasing Liverpool and about 3 months later they eventually receive the paperwork, or 3) some kind of variation of 1 and 2 put together.

Option c) Your local station are semi helpful, take a crime report, but don't take a statement, then tell you it will be sent to Liverpool as per option b). problem with this is that Liverpool need a statement, they are unlikely to be allowed to come to London to take it, so then there is a stand off between Liverpool and London to get the statement done.

If you think this is a joke, sadly its not. Is it right - definitely not.

Anyway, please keep chasing, start mentioning complaints, and something might start to happen. You shouldn't need to complain, but sadly it helps. Supervisors don't like complaints, as then they actually have to do some work!

Can I ask a question - the second statement your daughter did, were you there? If not, was another adult? Anyone under 17 needs an appropriate adult with them. Depending on her age (I think you said she was 11?) it is perfectly acceptable to do a written statement, but most forces and child protection cases do like to do a video interview instead. However, if a statement has already been given and covers everything, there should be no need to do this as her evidence has already been covered in the written statement.

Please perservere with this. As a service we do get it wrong (more often than we should sadly) but as I say, with resources cut to the bare bone, it is only those that shout the loudest that get heard, so keep complaining until you get somewhere.

Thanks Ilove, that's extremely helpful.

So far as I understand from what you said, the second statement that my daughter gave should be acceptable as I was there and she shouldn't need to give a video interview. I've asked her about this and she has no objections to giving yet another statement, just said that she's forgotten a lot of the detail, which is completely understandable.

I think what's likely to have happened is something like your option b), where our local station was very helpful and took the statement. However (and I didn't mention that in my OP I don't think) they then didn't seem to know where to send the statement, which I did find worrying. I had to supply them with the name and shoulder number of the reporting officer, who said later that he had not heard from my local force and even less received anything...

I will continue making a nuisance of myself by phoning regularly for updates (very politely!) and will also start a complaint procedure, in the hope to get somewhere with this.

Hi OP,

Can I second what Ilove said about the statement - your daughter's first two statements, if made in the presence of an AA and with a declaration of truth signed by all relevant parties is definitely admissible in court.

It is often best practice to get a video ABE ("Achieving Best Evidence" - effectively an interview with the child that it taped) but this is by no means mandatory.

It is also usual (although not mandatory) that the police undertake a "truth and lies" exercise with the young person - a series of exercises to determine whether they know the difference between a truth and a lie.

If I were you, I would establish whether charging advice has been sought in respect of this case before you subject your poor girl to more questioning. The police/CPS will have all the information they need from the first statements. Are going to charge him or not? You have a right to the details of the charging decision, and if no further action is to be taken, an explanation.

Hope that Helps.

Skaffen, I have no advice to add or experience to share but wanted to commend you for your strength/perseverance/support of your DD. Sounds like she is coping ok - hope that continues to be the case.

Thanks Hearts, I know I am biased as her mum, but she is really a lovely, lovely girl and I can't understand how anyone could treat her like this, least of all her father. She seems to be coping at the moment, she was quite pleased to get back to school and see all her mates again.

And thanks also lily, that's useful information about charging advice, I will make sure I ask about that.

Skaffen, in case you are feeling guilty about allowing unsupervised contact, I just wanted to say DON'T. While I agree with everything Dahlen says about it being wrong for abusive men to have unsupervised contact, in practice, it's very, very difficult to prevent it until such time as some harm can be shown. The resident parent's belief that harm is likely doesn't amount to very much. You could have fought unsupervised contact for years, lost a pile of money, gained a reputation (unfairly) for being hostile to contact, and not made any difference at all.

And although this was shocking for your dd, she knows what her father is really like now. She understands why contact can't go ahead. She is not romanticizing an absent father, or longing for contact that she dreams might be wonderful. Even though it was a bad experience, it was mitigated by the fact that she was believed and supported and that it was made extremely clear that it's not okay for her to be treated like that. It's not a tragedy that events have unfolded like this.

Nickname, what you say in your second paragraph about not romanticising an absent father etc is exactly why I allowed contact in the first place. So thanks!

Even with the way things turned out, I don't think it was the wrong decision to make. We can't wrap our dcs up in cotton wool; we can only give them the tools to deal with problems when they arise.

(Blatantly stolen from wise advice another poster gave me!)

Well finding out the name of the sergeant on duty at the time the assault was reported is not easy!

I phoned 101 but all they could give me was the phone number of the police station. Nobody answers that phone, I've tried and tried and tried, letting it ring for ages (until I'm disconnected). There is no answerphone. I guess they are all too busy to answer the phone.

I have sent an email enquiry to the police station in question asking for the name and/or email address of the sergeant in question, hopefully someone will get back to me with some useful information.

On the positive side, I have phoned the police officer at our local police station who took the statement from DD, and she said that the child protection officer I spoke to yesterday has called her and has now been sent my DD's statement. So now hopefully things should start moving!

Skaffen, have been following the thread. I'm in Scotland so it might be slightly different, but whenever I need to progress a crime report (I work in criminal justice) and I feel the officers involved are body swerving it, I write to the Divisional Commander (in charge of that police area) and I cc it to the Chief Constable of the whole force. It always gets results. Good luck, hope your DD is feeling better.

If you can't find out the name of the Sergeant, phone up the control room, and tell them you want to make a complaint to the Inspector. It should get resolved fairly quickly after that (with a bit of luck!).

Have just had a call from the child protection officer and he's read my DD's statement, reviewed the case with his superior and they are not going to take it further. It is common assault but not serious enough to justify arresting the bastard. Also because DD will not be having any further contact with him she is no longer at risk. The police officer is going to call him though, to let him know that the assault is on record.

I am a bit gutted that he won't even get his fingers rapped, I have to say, but I understand why they can't do any more. At least it's on record in case I need it in the future.

I'll still be complaining about the way it's been handled and how long it took to get there though, I've had to spend so much time on the phone to make sure something was happening, I don't think that's right.

I want to thank everyone who gave me advice and support on this thread, it's been invaluable and very very helpful

Atleast, its on record and SS are aware, just incase he tries something, you never know with bullies.

I know it's disappointing and might seem like he's got away with it, but like you say, it's all on record and you have your justification (if ever needed) for stopping contact. More importantly, your DD is safe, and she's seen you champion her interests. That will have a really positive effect on your relationship that will only become more apparent over time. You should feel proud of yourself.