The College of Police and CPS domestic abuse guidance is a danger to women and children like us
By a CoTs member
I’m horrified to see that UK’s College of Police ‘Domestic abuse guidance’, like the Crown Prosecution Service guidance which preceded it, effectively criminalises the children and female partners of trans-identified men if we resist abuse and coercion. Thank you to retired police chief Cathy Larkman, of WRN Wales, for highlighting this, a decision made without any consultation with trans widows or children of transitioners.
Here’s Cathy’s thread:
Here’s the link to the document:
And For Women Scotland has also highlighted this issue: https://forwomen.scot/14/10/2024/abused-or-abuser/
We depend on social workers and the police to stay safe – all of us do. We can’t create a sacred caste in society which is outside the law, and insist that anyone who does not do as they say will be committing a criminal offence.
Many people do not believe in the existence of ‘gender identity’ and our belief is protected by UK law. And yet here is the College of Policing recommended prosecution of family members who do not comply with this belief. We gave examples of how men like our fathers’ express their ‘identity’ beliefs to the government here: https://childrenoftransitioners.org/gra-inquiry-submission/
The family courts and Cafcass are now more aware of how they leave children like us vulnerable to abusive parents by encouraging contact at all.
https://www.cafcass.gov.uk/cafcass-publishes-new-domestic-abuse-practice-policy
‘No child or adult should have to live with or worry about the prospect of spending time with another adult who threatens, controls, abuses, and harms them. Sadly, many abusive adults apply to the family court to spend time or to live with their children despite causing them harm and being a risk of further harm to them in the future.’
In my case, the judge ignored pressure from Cafcass to make me see my father, due to police evidence. With this new Cafcass policy, no child of a transitioner should EVER have to be forced into contact with our fathers when they are abusive. Yet trans lobby groups are apparently convincing the police, CPS, Cafcass, social workers and NSPCC that wives and children are ‘domestic abusers’. The message seems to be that you will be defended against an abusive father… unless he identifies as transgender.
The College of Police only consulted with trans lobby groups about this, not victims like us of men who say they are trans. The trans group the CoP recommend, Scottish Trans Alliance (STA), has campaigned for years for mixed sex spaces, and the end of single sex abuse support. https://womansplaceuk.org/2018/06/25/references-to-removal-of-single-sex-exemptions/
In Feb 2024 the Independent Office for Police Conduct criticised police for blaming women and girls for male abuse. At the same time, the College of Police are deliberately gaslighting and blaming women and child victims of abuse, for abuse carried out by male perpetrators who say they are trans. There is a major safeguarding problem in the police. The IOPC needs to urgently intervene. https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/IOPC-ending-victim-blaming-guidance-Feb-2024.pdf
