“She reported that the father had been physically abusive from the start of their relationship, that he had been very controlling, won’t let her out of his sight and is always looking at her phone. The two accident and emergency attendances in 2021 were down to the father. She says in that consultation that she lied at the time and said there were other causes. The last incident, she says, was a week ago. She says she blacks out when he hits her and doesn’t remember it. Mother reported that she felt like she couldn’t escape him. She didn’t want to press charges, and she does not want any referral.”
“Hi Alec, unfortunately my ***…”; I pause there to say that that appears to be a redaction by the GP of Mr [Richards]’s name: “…is not allowing me to attend appointments anymore. I am currently recovering from a black eye, and he keeps saying no to my doctor’s appointment.”
“Mother stated that the bruise was caused by tripping on a shoe and hitting her face on a table. She is reluctant to discuss the actual cause of the injury, and Mother stated she was in a difficult relationship and finding it hard to leave her boyfriend, and she became emotional. Mother told officers that her boyfriend doesn’t like her going to the doctor’s and has stopped her going, despite the fact that she was 24 weeks pregnant and in need of regular checkups.”
“My ex-partner is not leaving. He stayed overnight. Now he’s not leaving.”
‘One highly important aspect of the Lucas decision, and indeed the approach to lies generally in the criminal jurisdiction, needs to be borne fully in mind by family judges. It is this: in the criminal jurisdiction the ‘lie’ is never taken, of itself, as direct proof of guilt. As is plain from the passage quoted from Lord Lane's judgment in Lucas, where the relevant conditions are satisfied the lie is ‘capable of amounting to a corroboration.’
“Any judge who has had to conduct a fact-finding hearing such as this is likely to have had experience of a witness - as here a woman deposing to serious domestic violence and grave sexual abuse - whose evidence, although shot through with unreliability as to details, with gross exaggeration and even with lies, is nonetheless compelling and convincing as to the central core… Yet through all the lies, as experience teaches, one may nonetheless be left with a powerful conviction that on the essentials the witness is telling the truth, perhaps because of the way in which she gives her evidence, perhaps because of a number of small points which, although trivial in themselves, nonetheless suddenly illuminate the underlying realities.”
“(a) The father has perpetrated violence against the mother on multiple occasions between 2020 and 2024. This abuse occurred at times when [John] was present and/or within earshot of the violence, whilst Mother was pregnant and prior to [John]’s birth and during Mother’s pregnancy. The level of abuse and the violence of the attacks escalated over time. (b) The father has engaged in controlling and coercive behaviour towards the mother between 2020 and 2024. (c) Father poses a risk of significant harm to [John] and Mother as a result of his violent behaviour. (d) Mother failed to protect herself and [John] from Father’s abusive behaviour, which has caused significant emotional harm to [John] and a significant risk of future harm.”
“Then, two days later, he wanted to have sex early in the morning on the 26th. He was doing it, but I did not want it or respond to it. That was normal because he treated me so badly. My body would reject it. He got in a mood and went to the bathroom. He said, ‘You’re a zombie; what is wrong?’. I then said he could do it, but he said, ‘No, I don’t want to do it anymore’. I must have fallen asleep. I then woke up to a feeling on my back and turned to see him wrapping a cord around the iron. He had burned my back with the hot iron.”
“I would describe [Jenny]’s injuries as ‘horrific’. It is a full iron print on her back, that [Paul] has waited to warm up to make incredibly hot, which suggests premeditation, before applying to someone you’re in a relationship with. It’s psychopathic behaviour.”
“I have been [Jenny’s]’s family nurse since August 2022 and would say we have a good relationship. [Jenny] is normally very friendly, chatty, confident and clearly bright. But when we talk about [Paul], she is clearly anxious, wants to change the subject and appears scared of him and of family repercussions of conflict between his and her families, as they live in close proximity. To me, she appears to be someone who does not see a way out from an abusive relationship.”
“No one has forced me to make this statement today. No one is coercing or controlling me to make this statement today.”
“I’m not an expert in forensic science, but it seems unlikely to me and my colleagues that such an injury would have been [sic] occurred from accidentally leaning onto a hot iron on a shelf, and I felt that Ms [Simons]’s explanation for how she came to be injured was not plausible.”
“(10) The father isolated Mother from her friends and her mother in the course of their relationship. He made the mother change the way she dressed. (11) After the incident on or around29 July 2022 , Father prevented Mother from seeking medical help for her facial injury or attending her antenatal appointments. (13) On14 November 2023 , at 2.15 in the afternoon, Mother called the police in a distressed state because of an altercation with Father at her home. The father would not leave. [John] was in the home. Father grabbed the phone and ended the call. (14) Throughout the relationship and on more than one occasion, Father would damage the mother’s phone so that she was unable to contact her friends, family or seek professional help.”
“5. By this time, he had started controlling everything I did. He stopped me going out unless I was with him. I hardly saw my schoolfriends anymore. Throughout this period, he would use my past with other boys from before I got together with him to emotionally abuse me. He would stop talking to me for days, and then would come back and shout and swear and call me horrible names. 6. It was around six or seven months into the relationship that [Paul] made me change how I dressed. When we first started seeing each other, I used to wear jeans and fitted tops, and did not wear a headscarf. He first made me wear a headscarf and was okay with me wearing jeans and tops, although they had to be modest. Then he made me get rid of my whole wardrobe, and I was only allowed to wear loose dresses.”
“She told officers that her boyfriend doesn’t like her going to the doctors and has now stopped her going, despite being 24 weeks pregnant and in need of regular checkups.”
“Ms [Simons] called the police at 2.15 hours on Tuesday,14 November 2023 . She could be heard crying on the phone and asking for police. A male then sounded like he’d grabbed the phone off her, and the line was cleared. Told METCC that the male had left, but was being very vague. She said he was refusing to leave, but then left, and that she’d locked the doors after. Several attempts made to contact the informant. Several visits to the venue with no reply.”
“7. [Paul] also used to break all of my phones, so, for a long period of time, I did not have a phone at all. He used to constantly smash them when he was being angry and violent, and would never replace them. In the end, my mother said she would no longer get me any new ones, because it happened so often. I therefore had no phone for around a year and a half, until I turned 18 and started working in the summer of 2021, and could get one for myself. Once I did have a phone, [Paul] had full control over it. He had all my passwords and would check and monitor everything.”
“Mr [Richards] has not been assessed in his parenting capacity and has not been able to commence any spending time with [John] due to the risks that have been identified within the Local Authority’s risk assessment of3 October 2024 . It has been recommended that Mr [Richards] undertake a specialist perpetrator course through DV-ACT PAI before any further consideration is given to how contact could be safely achieved. I note that Mr [Richards] is open to engaging in any course assessment which is deemed necessary, and that he is focused on [John]’s well-being and safety. However, there are complicated and conflicting factors at this time, given the criminal case. Within his statement, he accepts an incident where he has assaulted Ms [Simons] in October 2023. He has not accepted he was a perpetrator of domestic abuse, nor that he burned Ms [Simons] in June 2024. Mr [Richards] will therefore not be wanting to further incriminate himself, given his non-guilty plea. It is unsure if Mr [Richards] will change his position at the conclusion of his trial, and dependent on the outcome.”
“Mr [Richards] considers that undertaking domestic abuse work should take place now rather than later, as it will ensure he does not make the same mistakes. It is of significance that Mr [Richards] accepts an assault in October 2023, only months after engaging in domestic violence work in August 2023. It therefore remains questionable if Mr [Richards] will take any value from undertaking any perpetrator programme and hence any increased level of safety for Ms [Simons] and [John] in future contact arrangements. Without any appropriate level of responsibility, it will undoubtedly hinder any meaningful progress.”
“29. [John] has experienced frightening and neglectful care in his young life, which will have impacted on his ability to feel safe and secure. [John] is a child who shows signs of separation anxiety and heightened levels of emotional dysregulation. Children who are placed in situations of stress are known to struggle to develop positively, and their physical and emotional development can be delayed. Chronic exposure to domestic violence keeps the brain in a state of fight or flight. Higher cortisol levels contribute to anxiety, poor emotional regulation and difficulty calming down. 30. Whilst there are indicators that [John] has some traits of neurodivergence and is being reviewed for autistic spectrum disorder, these traits cannot be considered in isolation, given [John]’s adverse experiences. Trauma doesn’t cause autism, but it can create behaviours that look similar. Similarly, children with early trauma may be misdiagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder. Without further assessment, his diagnosis is not yet clear. However, [John]’s trauma experiences will certainly have had an impact on his developing personality and, if diagnosed, will have likely amplified his autistic spectrum disorder-related difficulties. 31. [John] now needs to feel consistently safe and secure to build trusting relationships with others. He will continue to require reparative parenting, which goes above good enough care, to recover from his early experiences of trauma. Without reparative parenting, including good routines, stimulation and consistent and sensitive care, [John] will find it hard to thrive.”