Pet abuse, evicting perpetrators, and criminalising victims: Domestic abuse in the news
Sadly, domestic abuse is never far from the headlines, and recent news has been no exception.
Here we look at three recent headlines, each giving quite different perspectives on the subject.
The first headline relates to the tragic case of Holly Bramley, who was brutally murdered by her husband in 2023, following years of controlling and coercive behaviour by him.
Holly had been a great lover of animals, and one of the ways that her husband had sought to control her was by abusing, and threatening to abuse, her pets, to force her to do what he wanted.
In fact, her husband had a long history of animal abuse, and was even known to the RSPCA.
Studies have long shown a link between animal abuse and domestic abuse, and Holly’s mother has now called for a national register of animal abusers to be kept, to stop prolific animal abusers from being able to acquire more pets, and to raise awareness of the link between animal and domestic abuse.
The second headline relates to the Government’s new Social Housing Bill, which was announced in the recent King’s Speech. The Bill includes provisions aimed at protecting social housing tenants who are victims of domestic abuse. The protections include:
- stronger powers for landlords to enable them to take possession of a property where domestic abuse has taken place, without the requirement for the victim to leave;
- a new mechanism to facilitate the transfer of the joint tenancy into the sole name of the victim, where a victim wants to remain in the home as a sole tenant;
- powers to enable the courts to make an order to provide the victim with suitable alternative accommodation, where it is not appropriate for the victim to remain in a home and the landlord has this accommodation available; and
- a safeguard to ensure that perpetrators are unable to unilaterally end a joint tenancy in retaliation against possession action until proceedings have been concluded.
The Bill had its 2nd reading in the House of Lords on the 1st of June.
The third headline, “Report warns of legal aid gap criminalising domestic abuse victims”, perhaps requires some explanation.
The report, by the charity Centre for Women’s Justice, examines police and prosecution practice when domestic abuse victims are wrongly accused of offending. The issue arises in particular where the police have been called to the scene of a domestic abuse incident, and have to identify who is the victim and who is the perpetrator, in circumstances where the victim has acted in self-defence, or there are counter-allegations by each party.
Sometimes the police get it wrong, and the victim becomes a suspect. The report identifies a number of matters, including a legal aid gap, which can mean that cases that should be closed down early are not. The report makes recommendations to address these matters.
You can find the full report here.
If you are the victim of domestic abuse, including coercive and controlling behaviour by your partner, then there are legal steps that you can take to protect yourself. You should therefore seek the immediate advice of an expert family lawyer. Family Law Cafe can provide you with the help that you need. To get in touch with us, simply complete the form on this page.
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