Domestic Abuse
Domestic abuse, whether its violent, emotional or controlling behaviour, or a combination of all of these factors, is unacceptable and if it persists, you should always seek help and support.
If you need help to recognise whether you are being abused, there are many organisations that can give you confidential advice and we can provide you with details of them.
Such abuse occurs when one person harms another person with whom they are having or have had some kind of a relationship. They don’t necessarily need to be your partners or live in the same property and both women and men can be the victims of domestic violence and abuse.
The government definition of domestic violence is ‘any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate parties or family members - regardless of gender or sexuality
Abuse can include the following:
Threatening you
Psychological - making you feel or believe that you are worthless
Trying to control you by ignoring you and controlling what you say or wear
Humiliating you on a regular basis
Besides advising you and putting you in touch with help and support organisations, it might be that we can put in place an injunction.
An injunction, which is a judicial order restraining a person from beginning or continuing an action that threatens or invades the legal right of another or compelling a person to carry out a certain act, come in two forms - under Part IV of the Family Law Act 1996:
Non Molestation Order. This is a special injunction that aims to prevent a partner or former partner from harming you or your children using violence, harassment, intimidation or psychological abuse. If breached the offender can be arrested and could be subject to imprisonment for a period of up to 5 years.
Such an order can last for a fixed period or it can last indefinitely.
Occupation Order. This is an injunction which gives the applicant the right to live in a property. The court can grant an Occupation Order for the whole of a property of part of it, depending on its size and the practicality of such a situation. The order can even exclude a person from an area around the home.
The order can also deal with who pays the mortgage / rent and general outgoings as well as who has to maintain the home.
Contact RJS Family Law and we can listen to your issues and talk through your options.
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A client had become very concerned by some comments made by a man that she had met on Tinder - an online dating app
She had already been an unhealthy relationship and therefore, recognising certain character traits, she started to talk to RJS Family Law about some very real concerns she had about a man she had been communicating with on Tinder.
Given what our client disclosed, we advised her to do both Clare’s Law and Sarah’s Law checks into the individual concerned; this proved to be excellent advice! The checks revealed that the man had an extensive criminal history.
The police contacted her within 24 hours of submitting an application and spoke to her at length about what a dangerous man he was. He had committed sexual offences against minors and was currently facing trial for the attempted abduction of a child aged 15! More concerning was the fact that this client had children of the same age!
When confronted by my client, the man tried to excuse and justify his behaviour.
Armed with both my advice and that of the Police - as well as the information revealed from the checks, the client subsequently blocked him.
The man was later found guilty and sent to prison and our client felt very fortunate and lucky to have found out about the man in question before the relationship had gone too far.
At RJS Family Law, we pride ourselves on our levels of advice in support of those who are being abused or harassed by partners, ex-partners or indeed anyone else within the family or extended family circle. For further advice and information:
rachel@rjsfamilylaw.co.uk
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A client ended a relationship with her partner who was, to say the least, volatile. Unfortunately, as so often happens, this wasn’t the end of her story.
Given the character of her ex; his controlling behaviour and subsequent inability to accept that the relationship was over, he proceeded to both stalk and harass our client; in fact, his behaviour got so bad that he could ring our client up to 87 times in a day!
His behaviour become so extreme that we obtained an injunction against him which he breached continuously. He continued to attempt to make contact with our client via phone and email and even applied to discharge the injunction against him as well as failing to attend the final hearing.
After attempting to discharge the order once again, he visited our client’s home (a further breach of the order) on the morning that a further hearing was due to take place! He later turned up at the hearing – without any representation. Our client’s ex was so aggressive and threatening that the court’s security had to intervene.
The harassment continued and our client was forced to call the West Mercia Police who were already trying to collaborate with another Police force which wasn’t especially willing to assist. Fortunately West Mercia Police were taking the matter very seriously with one of their officers taking a statement from our client on the Monday with the subsequent arrest of her ex on the Wednesday. The man in question appeared in court on the Friday and after pleading guilty, he was fined £1,000.
Despite the unwillingness of a certain Police force to assist, with RJS Family Law’s continuous support and experience – together with the actions of a certain West Mercia PC, we were able to achieve a successful outcome for our client, bringing an end to the levels of harassment that she had been receiving.
Naturally, our client fully understands that we are always available to her should the harassment start again.
If you are experiencing a similar thing, get in touch:
rachel@rjsfamilylaw.co.uk