Domestic abuse and false accusations

[Milliemoo10]

Dear all,

I have been through so much over the past few months. I decided to leave my abusive ex, and he kept threatening he would take me to court regarding access to our daughter. He kept threatening to criminalise me (which I found absurd as ive never even had a detention in my life!)

The threats continued, so I decided to place an injunction on him. I had to go back to my house however to pick up several more documents. I collected them and then got back in my car. My friend who had my daughter in their car was waiting outside and warned me that my ex had parked down a different street. I calmly drove out, turned the corner and "bang"! I heard this big noise, turned round and saw my ex partner crouched down going towards his parked car as though he were about to chase me. I left in terror. I went to a police station to report the incident and to my horror two police officers came up to me and arrested me for 'atempted murder.' My ex had thrown himself at my car (!) he'd then rang the police and said i'd tried to kill him. As a result I spent a day in custody away from my breast fed baby :(. I've never been so afraid.

Fortunately, the police several months later decided that no intent was there (thank goodness), however still charged me with a motoring offence which I am taking to trial in June.

My point to all this is, are there any laws which protect women like myself from having such false allegations made against them by a vindictive (and thoroughly evil ex)? I cannot believe that I have been charged at all. If my ex was found guilty he would (im assuming) be perverting the course of justice, however I have read up on this and it appears he will get away with such a horrible act! Whose to say that he will not do something terrible again?

As a direct result of this, my ex has greater access to my child. I feel thoroughly sick when my family hand over to his family.

I hope you are all very well. I would be grateful and interested to hear your thoughts on this.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

It happens a lot. There are also a lot of people out there who deliberately cause crashes so they can claim whiplash. There is a whole industry of people fabricating car crashes for the money.

Make sure your friend who was there gives a full statement to the police and attends as a witness.

There are indeed laws designed to prevent false allegations. Perverting the course of justice is a very serious offence - normally those convicted would receive an immediate custodial sentence ( as with Vicky Price and Chris Hulme). However, if your ex denies it (and it seems he is) then you'll have to persuade first the Police and then the CPS to prosecute him. As with any case it comes down to a question of evidence. It seems that the CPS aren't persuaded by your account - and this is why they have charged you with the motoring offence.

By the way, the level of proof required in family courts is for less than it is for criminal matters - and reports of false allegations/false counter allegations are bread and butter for such courts.

When it comes to contact ('access'), the starting point for courts is that children ought to have good level of contact with each parent - but if there are 'cogent' reasons why such contact should not go ahead - such as an abusive parent - then the Court should stop contact - but the courts will have tried all options before making this order - such as supervised contact and visits at a contact centre.

It seems to me that you have an up-hill battle on your hands. As above, contact a womens' aid charity.