The government wants to tackle an epidemic of domestic violence against women, but beleaguered justice professionals can only do so much without more resources. Catherine Baksi reports

The low down

Professionals across the justice system are failing to understand and respond to the needs of women and girls who are victims of domestic abuse, lawyers and campaigners warn. The government has declared a ‘national emergency’ and sought to implement pilot initiatives to increase protection. But the lack of resources is hampering progress. Prison overcrowding has resulted in some inmates who are domestic abusers being released early. In the family justice system, meanwhile, the lack of legal aid has allowed perpetrators to use the courts to continue their abuse and removed the ability of parties to seek early advice to resolve disputes. Is better training for practitioners, judges and the police the best way forward?

Raneem Oudeh made multiple 999 calls, telling police how scared she was of her abusive, estranged husband. Just hours later he killed both her and her mother.

Oudeh, 22, was on the phone to West Midlands Police at the time, but officers got there too late. She and Khaola Saleem were stabbed to death outside Saleem’s home in Solihull in August 2018.

In December that year, Janbaz Tarin admitted the murders and was jailed for life with a minimum term of 32 years.

An inquest found multiple mistakes by the police ‘materially contributed’ to the women’s deaths. Officers were called out to Oudeh’s address on seven occasions in the weeks leading up to the murders. In the months before her death, she called 999 14 times to report incidents of domestic abuse, including threats to kill and stab her.

Yet the police repeatedly failed to take appropriate action to investigate or safeguard her from the escalating violence.

Raneem Oudeh

Raneem Oudeh: inquest found multiple mistakes by the police ‘materially contributed’ to her death

Oudeh obtained a civil non-molestation order which carried a police power of arrest. But, when it came to implementing that power, the police again failed, with fatal consequences.

Over two million women are estimated to be victims of male violence each year, an epidemic that the government and police chiefs have branded a ‘national emergency’.

According to figures published by the National Police Chiefs’ Council in July, at least one in every 12 women in England and Wales will be a victim of crimes including stalking, harassment, sexual assault and domestic violence each year.

Even this may be an underestimate. ‘We know much crime goes unreported and in policing we often only see the tip of the iceberg,’ the report says.

Nicole Jacobs, appointed in 2019 as the first Domestic Abuse Commissioner, has said domestic abuse incidents account for about one in three violent crimes recorded by police and a fifth of annual homicides; while 30% of people on probation are current or previous perpetrators of domestic abuse.

One woman is killed by an abusive partner or ex every five days in England and Wales, according to the charity Refuge. The police receive a domestic abuse-related call every 30 seconds.

In addition, although 93% of defendants in domestic abuse cases are male and 84% of victims are female, women are three times more likely to be arrested.

Worryingly, prosecutions and convictions have fallen. Ministry of Justice figures show that prosecutions fell by 42.5% from 89,095 in 2018 to 51,183 in 2024, while convictions declined to 38,776 in 2024 from 39,198 the previous year.

Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to halve violence against women and girls within a decade. Last week, home secretary Yvette Cooper announced two pilot schemes, beginning next year, designed to help achieve that goal.

In the first, some police forces will pilot what will become known as Raneem’s Law. Domestic abuse specialists will work inside 999 control rooms to ensure calls for help receive an appropriate response.

Cooper also announced the rollout of a pilot of much-anticipated civil Domestic Abuse Protection Notices to provide immediate protection following a domestic abuse incident. These have been on the agenda since the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 came into force in 2022.

These strengthen existing domestic abuse protection orders to cover all forms of abuse. They have no maximum term, meaning victims will be able to obtain protection for as long as it is needed.

In addition to prohibitions such as exclusion zones, the new notice may also include other obligations such as requiring abusers to attend behavioural change programmes.

The new notices will be the first cross-jurisdictional orders available in the family, civil and criminal courts. Applications will be accepted from victims, the police and any other party. Breaching an order will be a criminal offence punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both.

The Home Office has confirmed that the pilot of the new notices will start in November, but could not say when it would be rolled out nationally. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, however, Jess Phillips, minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, committed to extending it to all 43 police forces in England and Wales.

Phillips said that she hopes the pilots will lead to a ‘cultural shift’ in the police when dealing with domestic violence, improving understanding of risk escalation and responses.

Falsely accused - 'nothing can be worse'

Much of the focus in cases of domestic violence is naturally on the complainant. But Jessica Wilson, director and senior lawyer at Eventum Legal in Manchester, also highlights the impact on those who are falsely accused.

 

‘Domestic violence is a serious offence and can have a devastating impact on the victims, their family and their friends,’ she says. ‘But we must not forget that for the millions of those who do sadly fall victim to such offending, there are false allegations made. The consequences on the accused can be devastating.’

 

The impact on the accused, she says, begins immediately with the imposition of bail conditions, a domestic violence prevention order or non-molestation order. Repercussions can also include ‘removal from the family home, preventing contact with children and speaking to certain people, loss of employment and subsequently support networks – all before any court proceedings take place to establish guilt’.

 

Moreover, delays in the criminal justice system mean it can take years for cases to come trial.

 

‘Clients will often say to us that whether they are convicted or not is irrelevant by the time cases reach trial, as nothing can be worse than the consequences of being accused,’ says Wilson.

 

She argues that there is ‘little fairness to the accused’ who have ‘often lived out a sentence by the time court proceedings begin’.

 

Eventum’s clients are often referred by charities such as FACT and the Falsely Accused Network. ‘The men and women referred to us are at the lowest point of their lives, with some having attempted suicide. Frustratingly, there is very little support in place for them,’ says Wilson. This often leaves defence lawyers with the task of supporting and consoling their clients emotionally.

 

Abuse allegations pursued through the criminal courts are often linked to ongoing family proceedings, too.

 

Wilson says she regularly sees domestic violence allegations made ‘to bolster applications to the family court’, either to get legal aid or secure residence in the family home.

Harriet Wistrich, solicitor and founder of the Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ), believes much more is needed, including a ‘complete transformation of policing’. She stresses that the protection orders which already exist are not being used or enforced, noting that officers failed to act upon the non-molestation order obtained by Oudeh.

‘If real change to the protection of women from male violence is to be achieved, we shall need more than pilots and new types of orders.’ Such initiatives need to be implemented and enforced on the ground by properly trained and specialist officers, she says.

Where the police fail, Wistrich adds, there also needs to be accountability. In 2019, the centre issued a super-complaint alleging that the police were failing to use protective measures to protect women and girls.

In response, a joint report making 15 recommendations for change was published by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, the College of Policing and the Independent Office for Police Conduct. These bodies are responsible for assessing, investigating and reporting on police super-complaints.

Wistrich is not reassured. Last week the CWJ published a report looking at police-perpetrated abuse, suggesting that nothing has changed since its super-complaint.

The centre is also concerned about the criminalisation of women victims. It asserts that at least 57% of women in prison and under community supervision are victims of domestic abuse, with the true figure likely to be higher. Research by the CWJ and others shows that, for many, their offending or alleged offending results directly from their experience of abuse.

Domestic abuse statistics

Through its Stop Criminalising Survivors project, the centre is working with women who have experienced domestic abuse and the criminal justice system to press for reforms that will end what it condemns as the unjust criminalisation of victims of gender-based violence.  

Its demands include a comprehensive legal, policy and practice framework to protect victims from unjust criminalisation, with new statutory defences to make self-defence and duress accessible to victims of domestic abuse who are accused of offending. This would give them the same protection that is already available to trafficking victims and householders facing an intruder.

Improvements, argues the centre, are also needed in the knowledge and understanding of all those working in the criminal justice system about the dynamics of domestic abuse, and how this should be taken into account where a victim is suspected of offending.  

To that end, it has created a training programme for criminal defence lawyers to understand the dynamics of domestic abuse so they can effectively represent victims accused of offending.

Meanwhile, as the government began releasing prisoners early, including some who had served only 40% of their sentences, Jacobs published a briefing highlighting the need to improve the criminal justice system’s response to domestic abuse. At the end of the year, she plans to lay before parliament a report calling for ‘wholesale change’.

‘The needs and safety of victims and survivors of domestic abuse must be understood at the very first point of contact in the criminal justice system, with agencies working together to support each individual,’ she tells the Gazette. ‘Far too often, prosecutors, the judiciary and other criminal justice agencies fail to understand the profound impact of trauma on victims and survivors of domestic abuse.’ Jacobs says this results in ‘victim-blaming language, a failure to understand why survivors are hesitant to engage, and poor communication throughout the criminal justice process’.

Court backlogs and delays make matters worse, she adds. Last-minute trial cancellations and constant rescheduling ‘re-traumatises victims and survivors and undermines their trust in a system that should be protecting them’.

Lawyers and campaigners also blame failures in the family justice system – including judicial attitudes – for allowing perpetrators to exploit court proceedings to further abuse victims.

‘I find it deeply troubling to receive consistent accounts of victims and survivors’ experiences of domestic abuse being minimised and disbelieved during family court proceedings,’ says Jacobs.

Judges failing to take seriously domestic abuse allegations and the impact on the child, coupled with the court’s ‘pro-contact principle’, which is used to justify a perpetrator’s contact with children, she adds, denies protection to vulnerable children who are required to have contact with an abusive parent, sometimes against their will.

‘For judges to properly understand victims of domestic abuse, there needs to be a sea change in the way family work is handled,’ asserts Peter Burgess, a partner at Burgess Mee in London.

'I know from personal experience and from so many women I talk to that the family courts are just not safe for survivors of abuse'

Melanie Brown

Of particular concern, says Burgess, ‘is the total absence of any proper appreciation of the impact of trauma on participants within the family justice system’, especially in cases involving domestic abuse.

These issues gained further traction when former Spice Girl Melanie Brown spoke about her own experience of domestic abuse and the trauma compounded by the justice system. Brown’s ex-husband ‘vehemently’ denies her allegations.

‘I know from personal experience and from so many women I talk to that the family courts are just not safe for survivors of abuse,’ she tells the Gazette.

A patron of Women’s Aid, Brown will give the keynote speech at next month’s Legal Geek conference. She has also started an online petition calling for expert training for judges on domestic abuse, and a change in the court’s approach to reverse the presumption of contact with both parents in cases where there is domestic abuse.

Melanie Brown

Brown will give the keynote speech at next month’s Legal Geek conference

In 2022, the Conservative government began a pilot in family courts in north Wales and Dorset trialling a problem-solving approach to private law proceedings. The ‘Pathfinder’ model was intended to better support domestic abuse victims and ensure the voices of children are taken more fully into account when decisions are made about their future.

Jacobs wants to see this approach accelerated throughout the family justice system.

Measures introduced in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 prohibited alleged perpetrators of domestic abuse from cross-examining complainants in family court proceedings and introduced a scheme of court-appointed lawyers.

In May 2024 the government increased the fees of court-appointed lawyers by 10%, but Jenny Beck, co-founder of Beck Fitzgerald in London, says the scheme remains ‘a bit of a disaster’. Fees are ‘still too poor to really encourage takeup’, leaving it to judges to step in or adjourn cases.

Alexandra Hirst, a senior associate at Boodle Hatfield in London, raises the issue of economic abuse, which can extend into family court proceedings when the financially stronger party seeks to wield power over their weaker partner. Internet banking apps and social media have made it easier for perpetrators of coercive and controlling behaviour to survey and control a partner’s finances.

Technology, agrees Katy Duff, solicitor at Burgess Mee and co-chair of Resolution’s domestic abuse committee, is ‘often used as a highly effective tool to perpetrate abuse’, even via the simplest applications on smartphones such as messaging apps, location software, and video or audio recordings.

Lawyers, she insists, need to be alert to a client’s particular vulnerabilities and ensure the means they use to communicate with them are secure. Judicial training should also cover technology-enabled abuse, she adds.

But Burgess concludes that ‘the biggest obstacle to justice in the family court is the scarcity of resources’. This ranges from the removal of legal aid, which would resolve many disputes at an early stage, lengthy delays which give perpetrators the chance to continue their abuse, lack of continuity on the bench, and a lack of judicial training.

 

Catherine Baksi is a freelance journalist

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