Abuse victims ‘put at risk’ as courts reveal refuge addresses

DOMESTIC abuse victims are being put at risk by courts that require their refuge addresses to be revealed to potentially violent partners, a victims’ commissioner and policing chief, have warned.

Claire Waxman, the London victims’ commissioner, and Sophie Linden, the capital’s deputy mayor for policing and crime, have written to Robert Buckland, the Justice Secretary, demanding a change in the law to ban courts from disclosing locations of abuse victims.

They said they had been given permission to share the anonymous details of a High Court case last month involving a mother who escaped from her partner to a refuge in a confidential location for her and her children’s safety.

They said the refuge was ordered to reveal the address after the alleged abuser claimed he had an access right to the children whom he claimed the mother had abducted.

They warned that it was the second such order in six months, after one in late 2019 in which a father managed to locate a mother and child when a refuge was forced to reveal their address.

“The father located the mother and the child, continued to stalk and harass her and, in a matter of weeks, abducted the child to another country,” Ms Waxman and Ms Linden said in their letter.

“Such orders fundamentally undermine the well-established refuge model, which is predicated on protecting survivors through the absolute secrecy of the safe address,” they added.

“In making such an order, the safety of the survivor and children were put at risk, as was the safety of all the other inhabitants of the refuge and the staff who are already at high risk of abuse.”

They said the law needed to change

“urgently” to outlaw the practice.

“Refuge addresses should never be disclosed, not even to the court, and only the office address should be used to effect service on the mother,” they said. “The court will be aware that the mother is residing in a refuge; the court does not need the refuge’s accommodation address. This is putting everyone concerned at serious risk of danger and irreparable harm, which the court would be responsible for.”

Ms Waxman and Ms Linden said in the first case, the refuge secured pro bono legal help that enabled protective steps to be taken to ensure the alleged abuser could not discover the address.

However, they cited other cases during the pandemic in which alleged abusers had been able to secure courtordered access to the home addresses of victims. “It is imperative that our response to this pandemic does not facilitate dangerous contact between perpetrators and victims, leaving children at risk of harm, or unwittingly facilitate further abuse and control through contact,” they said.

‘The father located the mother and child, continued to harass her and abducted the child to another country’