Mother in tragedy hails help for victims of abusers
A CAMPAIGNER from Yorkshire whose two sons were killed by their father has welcomed a new draft Government bill that would stop perpetrators of domestic abuse from being able to cross-examine their victims in family courts.
The change is part of a Government package announced yesterday aiming to support victims and their families and pursue offenders, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said.
In October 2014, four months after Penistone mother Claire Throssell, inset, pleaded with the authorities that her abusive exhusband Darren
Sykes should be prevented from seeing their sons, Jack and Paul, he lured the boys into the attic with the promise of a new train set, trapped them and set the house on fire. Sykes took his own life as well as Paul’s in the act, and Jack died six days later.
Miss Throssell, 46, has since been fighting with the Women’s Aid Child First campaign for an overhaul of the legal system – driven by a promise to her two boys, aged 12 and nine, that no other children should die in the way they did.
Speaking to The Yorkshire Post yesterday, she said: “We’ve been fighting for this for three-and-ahalf years. It’s just amazing. The first step has now gone forward.”
After separating from her exhusband, she had to go to court to resolve contact issues.
She said: “It was humiliating, it was barbaric and I was sat just four seats away from him in the court room.”
He used it as a way to control and intimidate, she said. Justice for domestic abuse victims can be improved by “listening to the children and keeping everybody safe in the family court,” Miss Throssell added.
“I hope that the judges now take this seriously and use this to move the family court system forward,” she said.
Miss Throssell added: “It’s bitter-sweet. It’s too late for Jack and Paul, but it’s not too late for the generations to come.”
The new legislation will introduce the first statutory government definition of domestic abuse to specifically include economic abuse and controlling and manipulative non-physical abuse. It will also establish a domestic abuse commissioner to drive the response to domestic abuse issues, new protection notices and protection orders to further safeguard victims and restrict offenders.
As well as the legislation prohibiting the cross-examination of victims by their abusers in the family courts, it will provide automatic eligibility for special measures to support more victims to give evidence in the criminal courts, the MoJ said.
Justice Secretary David Gauke said that cross-examining of victims in family courts “can cause immense distress and amount to a continuation of abuse”.
Sandra Horley, chief executive of the Refuge charity, said: “This Bill represents a once in a generation opportunity to address domestic violence but in order to do so we must ensure its aspirations are matched by adequate resources.”