Need advise re: being punched in the face and threatened child abduction

[Helpingafriend]

I am a regular who has NC and is posting on behalf of a friend who very much needs help & advice from the vipers. Please do read, I have seen some of the fantastic help and advice given on the Relationships board, and it is very much needed now. I am sending a link to my friend so she can read this post, which is written with her consent

Three years ago my friend married a man from Turkey. They are both in their 20s and have one baby DC.

H started being physically violent 2 months before their wedding, but it was intermittent at first, and has been steadily getting worse ever since. It happens a couple of times a month now. He is also very manipulative and controlling, for instance, one of the recent attacks was prompted when my friend declared her intention of taking the DC to playgroup that morning. He said she wasn't, she said she was, he then hit her and gave her a black eye. She didn't go.

The violence is usually in response to my friend challenging/disagreeing with something he says. He is also a lazy bastard who does not lift a finger in the house and has no interest in her child- he has never changed a nappy or entertained the baby for more than 10 minutes at a time.

He has UK residency, a job etc. They live in a council house, the tenancy is in my friend's name.

Today things escalated. His phone buzzed, and my friend saw that it was a notification from a dating website. She confronted her husband, who told her it had been set up by his friend as a joke, and he thought it was similar to FB.

During the course of this argument, he punched my friend in the teeth.

Obviously my friend needs to leave this absolute bastard. However she is scared, not only that he may get violent, but also he has frequently threatened to take their baby back to Turkey so my friend will never see her again. She has not gone to the police. She has phoned Women's Aid and they gave her an appointment at one of their centres, but she did not go. It is hard for her to get out of the house as her husband works shifts and is often home during the day, and even when he is away, I think it has got to the point where it is hard for her to get herself out.

She doesn't have any money to consult a lawyer at the minute and find out ways and means to protect herself and her DC, also to prevent her husband fulfilling his threats re: abduction.

I know a lot of MN members have gone through similar and know a lot about these sort of circumstances, so I was really, really hoping for some help and advice- and even failing that, just a bit of encouragement. She needs to know that her situation is awful and she should get out of it ASAP.

Depending on how long they have lived in the house as a married couple, no, she can't have him removed from the house. This needs to be checked
What she needs to do is make an urgent appointment with a housing officer and request a priority move. They should support her to make a home move application and put her in temporary accommodation while she bids. However this will not be immediate.
Or she could contact the national DV helpline and move into a refuge while she waits. However they will be outside of her home area and will encourage her to relocate.
Finally she could apply to the court for an occupation order however without evidence this may not happen.
She needs evidence. If she has worked with a DV service this may count, however she really needs medical, police or social services reports.
Social services, if they are informed, can work with her to safeguard the children and should take the risk seriously.

I believe the council have a duty of care to protect/remove perpetrators of DV from the house, it seems to be in their tenancies so I would try to find out this piece of information for her - speak to someone at the council on her behalf maybe.
Speak to the passport agency and get a caveat on the passport - this means that only she can apply for a new passport, and she will be informed and asked if anyone tries to get one (although its a good point someone upthread made about fake/someone elses passport)
the threat of abduction needs reporting, it needs to be put out there with every agency involved.
photos are good but she needs to get to a GP - maybe under the guise of a general/milestone check up/immunisations?

I've just been through this with a client. The council can't remove and abuser from a house they have the right to reside in. The victim has to remove him legally through obtaining an order. They can rehouse the victim then take legal action to evict the abuser at a later date (as they no longer have the protection of it being the marital home if the spouse whose tenancy it is has left).