00:00 The first thing we need to do is train judges. They have three days training before they
00:08 get a ticket to be a family court judge. Social services, social workers, domestic abuse is
00:18 not part of their degree and I would say 90% of their work is domestic abuse cases. Solicitors,
00:28 they put on the doors the family specialists, no they're not, they don't even have to take
00:35 a course in domestic abuse. They stand up and represent people in courts and don't even
00:42 understand what coercive control is or the new domestic abuse bill that we have in law.
00:52 And more importantly there are some cases they won't represent because of legal aid.
01:01 So the starting point is right there, training and accountability. People's lives are the
01:08 consequence of their actions. Judges have to stop this presumption that it's in the
01:19 child's best interest to see both parents. Judges are total strangers to these people.
01:30 Strangers are making decisions that affect the rest of their lives. They presume that
01:36 children are not capable of making decisions about who they want in their life and who
01:42 they don't want in their life. And that has to change.
01:47 But for three months we went through a phase where he had no contact whatsoever. And those
01:56 three months were so special because they could just be children. We went away on holiday
02:05 and Paul just threw himself into this swimming pool, fully clothed, just because he could.
02:13 They stood on top of Lapple Tower and said that they felt on top of the world. And on
02:20 their faces there's no fear, there's no guardedness, there's no having to be what somebody else
02:30 wants them to be. They were themselves.
02:35 I went upstairs one day and I found the boys spraying themselves with my perfume. And I
02:44 had to bite my lip because that perfume's blooming expensive. It was like... I was twitching
02:51 and I thought, "I wonder why my perfume was going down so quickly?" And I said to them,
02:56 "Boys, if you want aftershave, I'll buy you some aftershave." I sat them down and they
03:02 said, "No, Mum." They said, "We don't want to go and see Dad. And when we wear this perfume,
03:11 we're taking you with us."
03:14 None of this would have been possible without Women's Aid. Up until meeting Women's Aid,
03:24 I was just flicked off. They thought I'd go away. They thought they could stop me doing
03:33 anything. They told me I couldn't challenge the serious case review. They told me that
03:40 decisions had been made. And then Women's Aid came along and all that was inside, they
03:52 gave it a platform.
03:56 Women's Aid is 50 years old this year and they've been running campaigns and fighting
04:02 for women's rights all that time. And to still be as active as they are now in the climates
04:12 that we've gone through politically is an amazing feat. They've done more than help.
04:19 They've been a mentor, they've been a support, they've been a sounding board. And they were
04:29 the first to reach out, they were the first to say, "Let's get this petition, let's make
04:33 a difference to the country." And that's what Women's Aid do, they make a difference.
04:40 [BLANK_AUDIO]
Comments