A campaigning mother whose two sons were killed by their father has urged the Government to re-haul the family court system to avoid more children “being handed to abusers”.
Since Claire Throssell’s two sons were killed in 2014, seven more children have died at the hands of a known perpetrator of domestic abuse, calling for tighter legislation on children’s rights in family courts.
Ms Throssell said: “I’ve been fighting the authorities for years in Sheffield… I promised Jack and Paul as I held them as they died that they would be the last.”
The Independent Domestic Abuse Services (IDAS), responsible for Sheffield, Barnsley and North Yorkshire is hosting a joint event with Ms Throssell, at St John’s Community Centre in Penistone on Friday 8 December.
Last year, the IDAS supported more than 10,000 victims and survivors of domestic abuse across Yorkshire, and responded to 30,000 helpline calls.
The free teaching event, as part of the 16 days of activism campaign, aims to equip people with the knowledge and skills to take action in their workplace or community, and will break down concepts such as gaslighting, love bombing and coercive and controlling behaviour.
Ms Throssell, 51, from Penistone said: “There’s always a silence around domestic abuse, and the biggest silence of all is around children’s rights.. Children’s basic human rights have been broken in family courts in our area every single day.”
She urges the government to review the Children’s Act, a piece of legislation Practice Direction 12-J, to say a child can only see both parents if it is safe to do so.
According to the IDAS, there is a significant link between domestic abuse and child abuse, as 62% of children living with domestic abuse are directly harmed by the perpetrator.
Ms Throssell said: “It’s all down to the fact there is still this presumption of contact being in the best interest of the child with both parents, whether they’re abusive or not… parental rights come above children’s rights.
”And right now children are being handed to abusers.”
Thanks to her tireless campaigning, the Domestic Abuse Act (2021) recognised children as victims of domestic abuse in their own right, and banned ‘aggressive cross-questioning’ of victims of domestic abuse in court.
However there is still progress to be made, as victims have to use the same door and waiting area as their perpetrators in family courts – unlike crown or magistrates.
Ms Throssell said: “There’s always a silence around domestic abuse, and the biggest silence of all is around children’s rights.”
Alongside campaigning to strengthen children’s rights in family courts, Ms Throssell hopes to inspire conversations around domestic abuse, making it “everyone’s business”.
She said: “Somebody could be walking down the street feeling broken and nobody will know because you feel like a piece of dirt under the world’s shoe.
“So to look somebody in the eye and actually face them and say, I’m a victim, takes a lot of courage…
”We see you, you’re not alone, you’re not isolated.”
In her talks she shows a photograph of her two sons taken months before the fire, and one of Jack in intensive care.
The photograph depicts what such a “beautiful, gentle boy” had to endure as a result of his father.
Ms Throssell said: “I remember them as soon as I wake up. They’re on my mind every moment of the day.
“There’s books out there that tell you how to bring up a child. There’s none that tell you how to live without them…
“I have to live with the fact that he only took them away to hurt me. They only died because of me.”
