There is a presumption in law that children benefit from contact with both parents. Even in proceedings where the Local Authority is contemplating removing a child from a family, there is a duty to support and promote contact with both parents, even where one or both may be the perpetrator.
Of course the welfare of the child will always be the Court’s paramount consideration, therefore any allegation that a parent has either deliberately hurt a child, or deliberately sought to alienate a child from the non-custodial parent will be carefully investigated. Curiously though, this has the potential to undermine rather than strengthen the principle that the welfare of the child is the Court’s paramount consideration. This is because the onus is on (usually) the mother to prove that contact with (usually) the father is not beneficial. A task easier said than done, especially where coercive control is one of the main factors at play. Also domestic abuse is often not always reported to the police or a medical professional, nor are there usually any third party witnesses and it does not always leave physical injury.
Domestic violence is the single most often-cited reason for a woman to refuse or deny contact to the father of a child. In a rising number of cases the main issue for the Court to determine is whether or not the evidence of domestic violence is such that contact should be suspended, postponed or even prohibited because the risks from domestic violence are too high. Dangerous contact is obviously not safe!
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