Children and carers bereaved by domestic abuse have been ‘left invisible’ in the government’s landmark strategy to tackle violence against women and girls, campaigners say.
The Joanna Simpson Foundation said the framework launched by Jess Phillips on Thursday is a ‘watershed moment that must be applauded’.
But it pointed out that roughly 2,000 children will lose a parent due to domestic homicide over the next decade yet neither they nor the carers left to look after them have been considered.
Co-founder Diana Parkes CBE, whose daughter Joanna Simpson was killed by her estranged husband in 2010, said: ‘Having lost my daughter to domestic homicide, I know exactly how devastating the impact is on the children and carers left behind after such brutal acts.
‘It is unacceptable that the Government’s strategy fails to recognise them in any meaningful way.
‘Families living with the consequences of domestic homicide cannot be treated as an afterthought. They should be not left invisible in a national strategy.’
The foundation also condemned the failure to set out how Jade’s Law will be implemented.
Named after Jade Ward, who was murdered by her ex-partner in 2021, it is designed to prevent perpetrators from exerting control from behind bars.
The strategy has a raft of new initiatives aimed at preventing boys and men ever becoming abusers, dealing with those who do, and getting justice for victims.
Schools in England will get £20million to ‘tackle radicalisation and confront concerning behaviour long before it grows into abuse or violence’, Ms Phillips told MPs.
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Pupils in secondary schools will have lessons on healthy relationships from teachers trained to spot harmful attitudes.
There will be a crackdown on deepfake abuse online with a new law banning AI ‘nudification’ tools that turn pictures of real people into sexual images without consent.
All police forces will have specialist rape and sex offences investigators.
Domestic abuse protection orders will roll out so courts can set long term conditions to tackle economic abuse, coercive behaviour, stalking and ‘honour’ violence.
Perpetrators could be tagged or made to attend behaviour change programmes.
And £1billion will be split between victims services and safe housing for survivors.
But campaigners have warned the measures ‘do not go far enough’, while the level of investment in them ‘falls seriously short’.
‘It’s indefensible to overlook bereaved children and carers’
Joanna Simpson Foundation co-founder Hetti Barkworth-Nanton CBE said: ‘It is indefensible that the UK government’s strategy to tackle violence against women and girls overlooks the children and carers whose lives are torn apart by domestic homicide.
‘Their trauma is lifelong, their needs are urgent, and yet they remain invisible in the very policies meant to protect victims.
‘By excluding them, the UK Government is failing those who have already paid the highest price. We owe these families better than silence and omission.’
‘We are the invisible victims’
Roann Court told Metro the support for her and her family members after her mum Claire Marshall was killed by her ex-boyfriend was ‘non-existent’.
Benjamin Cooper admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and was detained indefinitely.
She said those adults left behind to care for bereaved children are most often the victim’s family, who are having to put their own grief to one side and suddenly take on parental responsibilities.
Without the help of Frank Mullane and his charity Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse (AAFDA), Roann said her grandparents ‘wouldn’t have known what to do and our lives would be 10 times different to what they are today’.
She said: ‘Excluding children and carers bereaved by domestic homicide from this strategy is deeply disappointing.
‘It reinforces the message that once a homicide occurs, families like mine are no longer seen. Without explicit inclusion, children and carers will continue to fall through the gaps, just as we did.’
Roann added: ‘There isn’t a list of how many children are actually affected by domestic abuse.
‘There is a list of the victims, but how many of those women are leaving kids behind and how many of those are left fighting and doing all of this by themselves?
‘We are the invisible victims.’
‘My family were amazing – but they can only do so much’
Hollie Out was 15 when her mum Angela Crompton was killed.
‘In that moment my life was changed forever in more ways than obvious,’ she said.
She described there being ‘very little support’ during the subsequent trial and then being ‘left to deal with an unfair outcome with no professional support’.
Thomas Crompton denied murder and was cleared. He was convicted of manslaughter and jailed for just seven and a half years.
‘My family were amazing, but they can only do so much,’ Hollie added.
‘You are left with unanswered questions and feelings and feel you have nowhere to take them.
‘This traumatic incident from my childhood has impacted my adult life in so many ways and I feel like I have only recently been able to navigate this now I am 30.
‘It is deeply concerning that children and carers affected by domestic homicide have been left out of the government’s strategy to tackle violence against women and girls.
‘Their exclusion shows a profound lack of understanding about the trauma these families endure after such an unbearable loss.’
Jodie Edith, whose stepsister Laura Mortimer and her 11-year-old niece Ella Dalby were killed in 2018, said: ‘My nieces were in the house when their mum and sister were murdered.
‘What followed was not protection, but a distressing battle through a system that failed to understand trauma or prioritise the needs of the children.
‘My step mum has raised my nieces beautifully. They are deeply loved, safe, and cared for.
‘However, the pain, fear, and ongoing trauma she has had to endure while fighting for their rights is not acceptable.
‘No caregiver should be forced to navigate chaos, confusion and legal battles just to secure protection for children who have already lost everything.
‘I ask those in power to take a moment and put themselves in the place of a child who has lost a parent to domestic homicide or a carer who has to take on new responsibilities following such horrific circumstances and then ask how it can possibly be considered safe or acceptable for that child and carer to be repeatedly re-traumatised by the very systems meant to protect them.
‘I ask those in power how they would feel.
‘Children carry this trauma throughout their lives, resurfacing at every milestone, yet their voices are too often unheard.
‘No child should be forced to endure further harm after surviving the unimaginable. Children and their carers bereaved by domestic homicide deserve a system that protects them, not one that re-traumatises them.’
Christopher Boon is serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 29 years for the murders.
‘Nothing can prepare you for trying to rebuild a child’s life after such violence’
Linda Westcarr, mother of Kennedi Westcarr-Sabaroche who was killed by her boyfriend, said: ‘As a grandmother raising a child after losing my daughter to domestic homicide, I know that families cannot survive on promises alone.
‘I know the devastating reality behind the headlines. Nothing prepares you for the pain, the fear, or the overwhelming responsibility of trying to rebuild a child’s life after such violence.
‘Those of us who become carers carry not only our own grief but also the child’s trauma, while shouldering the responsibility of keeping them safe, stable, and loved.
‘That is why it is heartbreaking and deeply frustrating to see the UK government publish this strategy without explaining when Jade’s Law will be written into policy and put into practice so it can actually be used.
‘Families cannot survive on promises alone. The absence of any clear implementation plan sends a painful message that families like mine have once again been forgotten.’
Linda has called for a review of Kennedi’s killer Gogoa Tape’s sentence after he was handed a hospital order when his guilty plea to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility was accepted.
Unveiling the strategy last week, Ms Phillips said: ‘This strategy does something that none before it ever has.
‘Until now responsibility for tackling violence against women and girls has been left to only the crime-fighting departments, working so often in isolated ways.
‘Providing support that is vital, but often too late to truly change the story. This strategy is different. It deploys the full power of the state across national government and local government.’
A government spokesperson said: ‘Every death relating to domestic abuse is a tragedy.
‘Our landmark Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy will look to address the root causes of these appalling crimes and prevent them from happening in the first place.’
They added that AAFDA receives Home Office funding ‘to provide direct support to bereaved families’ and that ministers ‘remain committed to implementing Jade’s Law as swiftly and safely as possible’.
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