'Antiquated' legal views of family 'put children at risk'

THE domestic abuse commissioner has criticised “antiquated views” in the courts system which she said are contributing to decisions which put children in harm's way.

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Dame Nicole Jacobs said there remains an assumption that parental contact is the right approach even in cases where domestic abuse is present.

Research for her office, led by academics at Loughborough University, found that despite the majority of hearings and case files they reviewed having evidence of abuse, in many of them this issue was not considered when it came to the type of child contact ordered by the court.

Unsupervised overnight contact was ordered in a number of cases, including those where there was evidence of domestic abuse, the commissioner's office said.