How did you prove emotional abuse to a solicitor / in court?

[Marmolada2022]

Currently caught up in a child custody battle (6m baby) after leaving an abusive relationship. I have various bits of evidence but never reported it over the years to police or DA organisations as I was stupidly trying to protect him. Would be really grateful to hear of others’ experiences of this and any evidence you had that was useful / taken seriously in the absence of police logs etc. thank you.

I'm in the US so the process might be different, but you might be able to get a psychiatric evaluation then call the doctor who performed it as an expert witness. Or have the judge assign a doctor to give the evaluation who will then testify on it. I went through this, it's so stressful! Sorry if I'm no help but maybe you can use the idea behind it.

Sorry you're going through this. Have you texts /voice notes?

Have you told a trusted friend?

Tell health visitor. Are you still off work on maternity? When are your due back? If he is adding to stress,anxiety be worth speaking to your gp.

Thanks @junbean and @Summerscoming23 . Good idea about the psychiatric evaluation - I may look into this. Over the past few years I’ve spoken to two different therapists who suggested the relationship was controlling and coercive and had concerns, but the worry is I didn’t open up fully about how he’d behaved as I was worried about them referring me to safeguarding / DA organisations etc and him getting into trouble.

I’m still off work until april. I did speak to the HV a few times but didn’t tell her the extent of the situation. She’s actually written me a statement to say because I’m still breastfeeding it’s in the baby’s best interests to remain in my care at the moment.

Just worried that whatever I do now will look ‘reactive’ as I was to scared to flag it at the time.

In regards to the reactive bit- Usually what's most important is recording of events- what happened and when. The court needs facts, and proof they are indeed facts and not fabrication. My lawyer suggested writing everything down with the date and everything. To have a third party evaluate the situation from a clinical perspective would bring merit to abuse claims.