Stop domestic abuse through the family courts

[QuarksandLeptons]

Worthwhile petition for those who are interested.

www.change.org/p/theresa-may-mp-stop-domestic-abuse-through-the-family-courts

Text from the petition:

"Last year, by order of the High Court advised by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), my friend’s two high school children were taken by force in the middle of the night from the home of their mother. They were dragged out of her house screaming, put into a police van and taken to live at their father’s house. They were told their reasons for not wanting to see their father weren’t good enough and that they must have a relationship with him.

If this sounds shocking - the truth is that this is happening in the family courts all the time. Just a glance through the comments of this petition will give you an idea.

Ever since the children’s Mum left their father, he continued to find ways to exert power and control over her. The kids didn’t want to see their Dad, but with the help of a specialist barrister, that only he could afford, the children ended up being taken in the middle of the night.

Children are as much victims of the domestic abuse they see and hear.

Many months on, the children write to Cafcass asking for help, describing how miserable they are, begging to be returned to the care of their Mother and demanding their ‘human rights’. They are still not being listened to.

The Cafcass website says: "We put children’s needs, wishes and feelings first, making sure that children’s voices are heard at the heart of the family court setting, and that decisions are made in their best interests"

But CAFCASS is doing the opposite.

These youngsters asked for help. So we did research, asked questions and have received numerous letters describing more Cafcass horror stories where children are not listened to and put at risk by unsafe child contact orders.

We also found that the rights of (mainly) women, who are trying to escape abusive relationships, are still not being heard and prioritised. This is despite Family Court rules issued in 2016 which say they must be.

Family Court secrecy means that mistakes can go undetected. Concerned parents are often seen as being ‘difficult’ and ‘obstructive’. Then they are forbidden from, and afraid of speaking out!

We must stop this happening. The decision makers in the Family Court must be properly trained to spot patterns of domestic abuse and the culture of secrecy must change to being more open.

We demand that the Government ensures that in the family courts:

Mandatory Training & Education already recommended by Family Court Rules and that this is independently monitored.

These rules state: ‘All members of the Family Court judiciary and Cafcass professionals must undergo mandatory specialist training in the dynamics of domestic abuse, coercive and controlling behaviour, the frequency and nature of post separation abuse, the impact of domestic abuse on children, on parenting and on the mother-child relationship.’

The Rights of Children must always be upheld - no child should ever be subjected to this type of forced removal against their will and then left in distress and without a voice. The voices, wishes and feelings and the human rights of children should be paramount in the decision making of the courts regarding contact arrangements."

As we see in many situations, Cluster Bs are adept at weaponising intermediaries to engage in abuse by proxy under of the guise of law enforcement

An admirable aim - I just wish more education around Cluster B tactics was in the public arena - they have no conscience nor empathy and will do anything to win whilst playing the faux victim. I'm pleased the children in the post saw through his tactics and am so sad for them about what he has put them through.

I just tried to sign but I got an error. I will have a look after work when I have more time.

Bump

Thanks for sharing this OP.

signed and bumpity bump

Two seperate reports to social services where the children reported violence towards them, more reports to SS from independent agencies about medication being denied and behaviour that was making medical issues worse. However I was labelled the abusive one because I was alienating the kids with my bad opinion of him. The physical abuse was just where he got a bit upset because i witheld his kids and they didn'the accept the financial or emotional abuse as relevent.

Then injured one.... If he ever demands his rights in court the solicitor advise is he could well get access... maybe if I'm lucky supervised by the family that covered it up previously. SS still did precious little

Suffice it to say I've signed the petition

Bloody hell the "reasons for signing" makes grim reading. Signed.

Children have had to set up cameras to prove that their fathers were raping them or beating them with belts because the courts care no more about what children say they suffer than they do about what women say they suffer at the hands of abusive males.
The ownership of women and children by men may no longer be codified into law but the enforcers behave as though it were.

Women and children have been killed while having to make contact arrangements with these abusive men. The courts favour fathers in access disputes and do not believe they would cause harm to the children or their mothers. How many deaths will it take?

The Police came in the middle of the night to drag them away screaming?

Sorry but this is a load of bull. The family justice system is very very overworked. CAFCASS does amazing work under a lot of pressure. You will never be able to please everyone and this is how wild allegations like this petition start. CAFCASS make recommendations to the court about how it should decide cases, based on the paramountcy of the child’s welfare. In a private law dispute, they don’t have any power to effect instant removal of the children during the night. Believe me.
This entire story is rubbish. I suspect, if true, that this was an emergency protection order granted by the court on the basis of suspicion that the children were suffering significant harm attributable to the care they were being given.
Do not sign it- family justice is on its knees as it is and CAFCASS’s aim is to ensure the welfare of the children.

Peak yes, CAFCASS are over stretched. Yes, children's services are at breaking point.

That still doesn't make the current setup of secret courts right. I understand the reasons behind the secrecy - child anonymity. But a court system where you can't even report on potential miscarriages of justice, much less rectify them, is a fundamentally flawed system which has no place in a democratic society.

That still doesn't make the current setup of secret courts right.

Again, blatant misinformation. They are NOT secret in the slightest. The press can attend hearings and very often do. There are umpteen judgments you can read on children cases on Bailii (the repository of court judgments). New ones are uploaded daily. You can see exactly how the court decides cases. As you point out, they are anonymised to avoid identifying the parties. That is very different to being secret.

I can tell you for a fact that what is described in the petition did not happen in the way it was described. I have worked in the family justice system in various capacities for 12 years. Have you?

The petition is reminding me of the Samantha Baldwin one which was discussed in depth on here at the time.

Poor Mother whose children had been sexually abused by her husband yet the courts gave him access so she went on the run. The Judge had to take the unusual step of revealing her and the children's names then later revealing that she was mentally ill and had drugged her own children to 'prove' that her husband (and his friends and lots of other people with the suggestion being a satanic abuse ring) had been abusing them.

The children will be old enough to Google in a few years and see all the information (and misinformation) spread about their parents and themselves. This is in addition to the trauma they have already experienced. Similar to the Ella Draper case.

That's why these cases are usually held in private and not publicised. To protect the children.

Signed, the family courts need to put children first, not abusive parents whom treat the courtroom like a personal playground where they can continue to abuse people for fun.

Yes, they are trying to put kids first. Not helped by some bullshit smear campaign against CAFCASS. I promise you none of this is true. Cafcass has no authority to effect the removal of children and in a private law dispute between mum and dad, it would never be done in the dead of night anyway. People on this thread seriously have no clue and just choose to believe the crap that the DM writes about 'secret courts'.

Judgement by Justice Hayden in which he says:

It is a stain on the reputation of our Family Justice system that a Judge can still not prevent a victim being cross examined by an alleged perpetrator. This may not have been the worst or most extreme example but it serves only to underscore that the process is inherently and profoundly unfair. I would go further it is, in itself, abusive.

www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Fam/2017/1195.html

Guardian article about the judgement and the wider implications in the family courts:

www.theguardian.com/law/2017/jun/02/judge-vows-to-ban-domestic-abusers-from-cross-examining-victims-in-his-court

Video of MP Peter Kyle speaking about it in Parliament and relaying experiences of constituents:

www.facebook.com/hoveandportslade/videos/641933309313708/

PeakPants, so the petition linked to here might not be the right approach, but something is clearly going wrong in the Family Courts. See LangCleg’s post. What would be the best way forward?

What would be the best way forward? It is actually very very simple. Bring back legal aid for private family disputes. That way people do not need to cross examine or be cross-examined by their abuser. That way these issues can be resolved early on in the process without long and protracted court proceedings.

We campaigned against the government removing legal aid back in 2012. The general public basically told us to fuck off and that lawyers earn shitloads anyway and were just trying to ride the gravy train. Legal aid lawyers are often on less than 30 grand a year, working tirelessly so that people get access to justice. Seems that 5 years later, people have woken up and realised the system isn't so great now that people have to self-represent and the courts are overloaded. Well, if you had supported us back in 2012 and legal aid had been retained, I can guarantee that things would not be as bad as they are now.

But yes, if you want to help women, children, anyone in the justice system, start a petition and a campaign for legal aid to be reinstate in private family law disputes. Don't vilify an organisation that is doing its damn best and where CAFCASS officers are sometimes having to work through the night to prepare reports. Their aim is always always to protect the welfare of children, but they are not miracle workers.

Oh and sometimes the child's welfare will not be whatever the mother wants. For some people, that is not something they want to hear. This petition is dreadful.

Bring back legal aid for private family disputes. That way people do not need to cross examine or be cross-examined by their abuser.

Yes. While I rarely agree with PeakPants about much, austerity cuts have weakened institutions to the point natural justice and the rule of law is being undermined. This is the fault of austerity, not the institution.

I would add to this: reinstate legal aid and mandate against self representation where DV or DA has been alleged.

I would also add that the Children Act is a fabulous piece of legislation - easy for "civilians" to understand, even minor children, and always centring the needs of the child. However, it was written under the assumption that women had equality - and women's equality has been undermined so severely by austerity disproportionately affecting them, that we are in the Orwellian situation where protecting a child can also mean abusing its mother.

Thank you, PeakPants and LangCleg. I’m going to search for a petition about legal aid.

Oh and sometimes the child's welfare will not be whatever the mother wants.
I’ve worked with a child where this was very much the case. It was horrendous. And in that case unfortunately SWs got drawn into the mother’s agenda, despite ostensibly being there for the child.

Yes, i have been involved in several cases where parents genuinely believed they were doing the best for their children, but the reality was that they were damaging them. It's extremely complex, but the answer is not to blame CAFCASS for recommending a relationship between father and child even where mother makes allegations of abuse. I have also seen numerous cases where they have not recommended contact, especially if the child is opposed to it. But often mum is convinced that child hates dad and does not want to see him, yet when child speaks to Cafcass officer, it transpires that they do want to see dad but don't want to upset mum.

Cafcass do not automatically side with fathers, but at the same time, they are not idiots and will not simply take the mother's side of events without question. I had one case where the mum was outraged and complained to her MP because the Cafcass officer listened to the father's version of events rather than simply accepting mum's word.

Bring back Legal Aid! And yes, there should be restrictions on cross-examination by litigants in person, but ultimately you have to ensure that people are given a fair hearing and are allowed to test the evidence. It helps nobody if you don't.

Cafcass officers and legal aid lawyers are heroes. They work for rubbish money, under the most horrible conditions, because they genuinely care about what they do. They need our support and we need a proper functioning family justice system again.

Here’s a summary of the new report by Women's Aid and Queen Mary University of London:
www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/2018/hss/family-courts-failing-to-uphold-human-rights-for-victims-of-domestic-abuse-according-to-queen-mary-report.html

This says, “The report also uncovered systematic gender discrimination and a culture in the family courts that silences women by failing to uphold the human rights of survivors.”

And here’s the previous report by Women’s Aid:
1q7dqy2unor827bqjls0c4rn-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Child-First-Nineteen-Child-Homicides-Report.pdf

This includes: “The blame for these killings lies with the perpetrators. However, we have concluded that these cases demonstrate failings that need to be addressed to ensure that the family courts, Child and Family Courts Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), children’s social work and other bodies actively minimise the possibility of further harm to women and children.”

And refers to the damage caused by legal aid changes.