DV experts please help

[Theincidental]

I have a very brave friend who has recently left her abusive dh and moved into in a little house away from him with her toddler.

He's an utter cock of the highest order and is regularly harassing her over the phone and in person when they have access with the child.

Police and women's aid are involved (but no charges filed as yet) and seem to be helpful and taking it seriously, but her solicitor is just not moving fast enough (IMHO).

Can anyone tell me what immediate legal steps she can take to stop him harassing her, get custody and access sorted (maybe supervised contact?).

There's a real risk of him taking the child and she is utterly worn down by his constant controlling behaviour even now she's left.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

If there are no court orders in place as yet then she can reject all contact from him ie turn the phone off, don't answer the door, ignore emails. You say she has moved into another house - this man has no right of entry to her new home so she doesn't have to let him in and can call the police if he causes a disturbance on the doorstep. She can send him an email instructing him that all further communication is to be via email and will only be replied to when it concerns the child - she can even insist that this is all done through the solicitor or other third party. WA will be able to advise further, but it is possible to cut all contact with an abusive man and have his access to DC dealt with by other people. Sometimes, if the man's interest in seeing DC is purely as a way of further harassing the woman who has binned him, he will disappear when blocked.
If the solicitor is really useless, your friend can dump him/her and get another one - again, WA should be able to recommend one.
If the man is violent, or has been violent, and the police have this on record, it should be possible to get emergency injunctions preventing him from contacting your friend at all while supervised access is sorted out.

I agree with SGB. Very good that the police are taking it seriously and it's very important that your friend have it on record that he is subjecting her to aggressive harassment as well as past violence. This will give her access to Legal Aid as well as influence any custody arrangements. If the solicitor is not familiar with DV relationship problems and/or is acting too slowly then she should look for another.

In the meantime, she does not have to communicate with him or allow him access to the child.

Thank you. emergency injunction was what I thinking of (didn't know the right phrase).

He doesn't know where she is living which is a very good thing. It is contact for the toddler that is so tricky. He uses it to abuse/cajole/pester her. I think the comments about how when he has no contact with her and no chance of it, he may leave might hold true here.

There are no supervised contact centres here so it's hard for her to arrange.

You've had good advice.

She needs to cut all contact except via email or text.

She could also move somewhere he doesn't know and only meet at safe places or a contact centre. Liaise with WA.

if she is at risk the dv unit within police should help her get straight into court for injunction, with my situ it took 3 days and also they fitted house alarm and panic alarm