A demonstration took place today (Monday, June 13) outside Bristol's Family Court as members of the Bristol Feminist Collective protested against decisions made by the court which they said "harm survivors of abuse and their children". The demonstration follows both an exposee in The Guardian (published on June 12) and a Channel 4 Dispatches programme, which aired last year and, the Collective said, showed police using force to remove children from their homes in the middle of the night and being taken to live with their fathers.
They also claimed that, when lawyers were asked about what was happening in the family courts, four out of five of those who responded said magistrates have a 'poor or very poor understanding of domestic abuse and coercive control' and added that one in three supposedly said that District Judges "also have a poor or very poor understanding of these issues".
The Collective believes that, as a result of this, courts are "ordering children to have contact with domestic abuse perpetrators. Behind closed doors and protected by secrecy, the courts are re-traumatising domestic abuse survivors and making decisions that harm children".
