KEEPING IT REEL: CINEMA, TERRORISM AND GETTING TOUGH ON DOMESTIC ABUSERS 

Published on 21 August, 2024 | Michael Swanick

Summer is meant to be good for the spirit.

Even for those used to the unpredictable nature of British weather, time spent with one’s family away from the office and taking advantage of what sunshine there is has its benefits.

It has, however, been impossible to escape another kind of cloud on the horizon.

The season’s cinema releases, for instance, have included ‘It Ends With Us’, based on a best-selling book with the same title featuring domestic abuse (https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/itendswithus).

Abuse was also one of the most compelling elements of new data published by the Ministry of Justice and analysed comprehensively by my colleague Savannah Davies (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2024/family-court-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2024).

In an article on this ‘blog only a few weeks ago, she explained that the figures showed a near 47 per cent increase in the number of domestic abuse-related orders made by family courts across the country since 2013 (https://hallbrown.co.uk/more-still-to-be-done-on-tackling-domestic-abuse/).

Her observations have now been followed by media coverage outlining how the new Labour Government is planning to elevate the seriousness with which domestic abuse is treated.

Various outlets, such as the Sunday Times, have described how police will be “asked to use counterterrorism-style tactics” to tackle with abusers.

The exercise will be led by Home Officer minister Jess Phillips and will begin, says the Sunday Times, “with a six-month data-gathering exercise to assess the scale of the problem”.

Yet it is regarded as being spearheaded by the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, who is said to consider this “a massive priority”.

Even before the weekend’s reports, that much was already clear from Labour’s decision to include specific reference to domestic abuse in its pre-election manifesto (https://labour.org.uk/updates/stories/labour-party-policy-crime-antisocial-behaviour-how-we-will-take-back-our-streets/).

It is also a similarly severe approach to that proposed in a policy paper unveiled by one Scottish MP back in March (https://www.thetimes.com/article/b7017006-0538-4927-9419-8b3bf37b8130?shareToken=23cac7568ff4c9e862665d2c2f5fa8e6).

In my opinion, it is only right that efforts to eradicate the problem are intensified by all who can possibly make a difference.

As Savannah pointed out, progress has been made but there is still much to do.

That much has been made painfully clear by those recent MoJ statistics indicating the extent to which domestic abuse against women, men and children is a feature of matters handled by family lawyers like ourselves and family courts.

Administering cases which present such issues must be done sensitively and thoroughly, something which can be a challenge for a system stretched by an increasing workload.

Sometimes, that involves something known as a ‘finding of fact hearing’, special sessions held to examine serious allegations which might impact on proceedings relating, for instance, to childcare arrangements.

Two years ago, Sir Andrew McFarlane, the President of the Family Division of the High Court, issued his fellow judges with guidance about how to oversee hearings at the heart of which were claims of domestic abuse (https://www.judiciary.uk/guidance-and-resources/fact-finding-hearings-and-domestic-abuse-in-private-law-children-proceedings-guidance-for-judges-and-magistrates/).

His focus was the avoidance of delay which, he noted, “is inimical to child welfare”.

Sir Andrew added that “there is a time and a place to determine allegations of domestic abuse, but it may not be in your court”.

That statement certainly shouldn’t be interpreted as an instruction to family courts not to consider abuse allegations with the utmost seriousness.

It was more an appreciation of the need to establish the best way to deal with such concerns in an effective way without impacting negatively on children.

The very same objective is fundamental to the regular training which myself and my colleagues receive to help us deal with any incidents or allegations of abuse which form part of the cases that we deal with.

Storylines involving abuse might make for dramatic tension and popular films or fiction but anything which can reduce its real-life effects and enable families to resolve their differences without rancour or violence is surely something which merits everyone’s support.