Lifting of 6 month time limit on domestic abuse prosecutions welcomed by Harrogate charity and survivors
Domestic abuse victims in England and Wales will be given more time to report assaults
The lifting of the six month limit on prosecutions of domestic abuse by the Government has been welcomed by a Harrogate charity and survivor.
Currently, prosecutions must commence within six months of the offence but under the changes, victims of domestic abuse will be allowed more time to report incidents of common assault or battery against them.
It will be moved to six months from the date the incident is formally reported to the police – with an overall time limit of two years from the offence to bring a prosecution.
Domestic abuse is often reported late relative to other crimes; so this will ensure victims have enough time to seek justice and that perpetrators answer for their actions.
New Beginnings charity was founded by Lindsay Oliver after she moved to Harrogate with her young child to escape an abusive partner.
The charity is a peer led after-crisis support for women and their families previously subjected to domestic abuse.
Lindsay, founder, said:
"I felt very unsafe. The result of me reporting to the police and the arrest being made while I was in that house would've put me and my son in a very dangerous position. Having previously reported and not having success in that I was very unconfident in how quickly it would be handled by the police.
"It could be that you weren't really feeling that you had the confidence or the ability to reach out to police and maybe it has taken leaving the relationship and having support of services around you to want to actually go through that process and so by extending that it actually allows perpetrators to be held accountable for their actions.
"There needs to be a pattern of behaviour proven to be able to prosecute. So control and coercive behaviour; absolutely great that was made a criminal offence in the last year. But to actually prove that and to give the police a chance - if you think about all the paperwork they have to do and all the evidence they've got to get.
"It isn't always there and then that you think 'This isn't right'. If someone is going to hit you, you know they've hit you and you know it hurts. But when it comes to psychological and the emotional impact and the control and coercion, you're not thinking 'Oh this has happened, I'm going to tell the police right now'."
Meanwhile, taking non-consensual photographs or video recordings of breastfeeding mothers will be made a specific offence punishable by up to two years in prison. It covers situations where the motive is to obtain sexual gratification, or to cause humiliation, distress or alarm. Similar legislation introduced by the Government in 2019 that criminalised “upskirting” has led to more than 30 prosecutions since it became law.
Ministers are changing the law to protect mums from being harassed no matter where they choose to breastfeed.
The Domestic Abuse Commissioner wants to hear from victims and survivors about their experiences, as part of her national mapping work. This is the first step towards ending the ‘postcode lottery’ in the provision of services that support victims, survivors and their children, and is a critical opportunity to feed into this important work.
The survey is anonymous and will not ask someone about their experiences of abuse, but about what help they wanted to receive and how easy or difficult it was to get this help.
Information is available in the survey on how someone can cover their tracks online, and a person might want to think about where they can access the survey privately and safely.