Express wins praise after victory for abuse victims
DOMESTIC abuse campaigners have paid tribute to the Daily Express for helping to make Family Courts safer for victims and their children.
This newspaper’s End This Injustice campaign helped secure a major victory this week when the Government agreed to overhaul the system.
Victims will be automatically entitled to separate building entrances, waiting rooms and screens to shield them from abusers in the courtroom.
Judges will also find it easier to impose barring orders, preventing abusive ex-partners from repeatedly dragging victims back to court.
Labour frontbencher Louise Haigh, who inspired our action, said: “It is so wonderful to see the Government come forward with changes to the Family Courts that will better protect victims of domestic abuse and ensure children are protected.
“This is testament to the inspiring bravery of abuse survivors who have campaigned alongside MPs and the Daily Express. It is proof that politics works.” The Government reforms will overhaul the Family Courts, where 60 per cent of cases involve abuse.
Our End This Injustice crusade was launched in April last year.
It called for the removal of parental rights for fathers of children conceived through rape.
It also called for an inquiry into how the Family Courts handle domestic abuse and violence against women and girls in child arrangement cases.
Campaigner Natalie Page, who founded #CourtSaid – The
Campaign for Survivor Family Justice UK, said: “I thought it was a great campaign.
“It’s a brave subject to report on and I think it was an honest campaign.
“We have now got a foot on the ladder and it’s the springboard for change to come.
“It’s great to see the brutality being addressed. We support the changes absolutely and wholeheartedly – we want to make sure there is help for everyone.”
Natalie said she hoped past cases would also be reviewed, asking: “What are they going to do for those who have lost their children?”
Natalie also thanked brave victims who came forward to tell their harrowing stories.
They included an anonymous woman whose children were sexually abused by her ex-partner.
He was imprisoned but was allowed to continue to control their lives from behind bars. She was stopped from selling her home – where the abuse took place – and he stopped his children from going on holiday.
He also refused to allow her to change their surname.
The woman said: “I am really pleased everyone’s hard work struck a chord with the Government. I am really proud of all the people who sat up and talked about their stories. Hopefully, there will be systematic change to protect children and change going forward.
“Thank you to the Daily Express for sticking with it – you were really supportive. I did not feel my story was being taken for a story, it was taken forward for a reason.
“It’s great to have had the Daily Express behind me to support me.”
Baroness Newlove, who also backed the campaign, tweeted: “Thank you for everything you did, now we need this implemented.”