Ministers say a parent’s right to see their child no longer trumps a child’s right to safety. Now we need a public inquiry into years of needless suffering
T
oday marks a groundbreaking legal change that offers hope for children and survivors in family courts. The government has announced it will repeal the legal presumption in England and Wales that a parent has a right to involvement in their children’s lives.
Over the past decade, I have sat in courtrooms in a state of utter horror and disbelief as judges have ordered rape victims to hand over their child to the man who raped them. When my clients refused to comply with court orders, they were threatened with prison. In some cases, I have seen family courts remove children from a victim’s care and place them in the clutches of an abusive parent.
More than a decade ago, “fathers’ rights” campaigners lobbied to introduce a presumption of parental involvement in children’s lives. Domestic abuse charities warned this could have devastating consequences for children, and they were right. This presumption infected the culture of family courts and stalled progress in a legal system that lags far behind other institutions in how it responds to domestic abuse.
