Domestic violence laws leave women vulnerable, says group

THOUSANDS of women experiencing physical violence from a former partner live in fear because the law is powerless to protect them, according to Women’s Aid.

Almost 800 women who called Women’s Aid last year were abused by former partners to whom they were not married.

Women’s Aid director Margaret Martin said the women, 10% of all callers, were very vulnerable as they had less recourse to immediate protection than married women. “It is a common belief that leaving an abusive partner will end the violence but, in many cases, the opposite is true,” she said.

Many women experiencing domestic violence, including those in dating relationships, could not get legal protection from the violence as they did not meet cohabitation requirements.

Ms Martin said legislation needed to change to reflect 21st century life and called for the removal of all cohabiting requirements.

Until the law was changed, thousands of women would continue to live in fear, she warned.

Ms Martin was speaking outside Leinster House in Dublin where Women’s Aid highlighted the underside of intimate relationships in Ireland to mark the United Nations’ Day Against Violence Against Women.

More than 15,000 incidents of abuse were disclosed by just over 10,000 women who called Women’s Aid last year.

One woman who called the organisation recently said she was being abused by a former partner with whom she had been involved with for a long time.

They had not lived together and had no children. Ms Martin said the man’s tactics moved from chocolates, flowers and promises to more threatening behaviour when he realised that the woman was serious about the break-up.

One night after they separated the man broke into the woman’s apartment and waited for her in the kitchen. “He tried to convince her to take him back while he opened and closed the cutlery drawer. When he saw he was getting nowhere, he took out one of the steak knives and threatened her,” she said.

Ms Martin said the woman felt shocked, angry and let down when she realised she could not get a protection order because she had not lived with or been married to her ex-boyfriend.

The women said a protection order would make her ex-boyfriend realise what he was doing would have serious consequences for him.

Ms Martin said a lot of men also used access to their children as an opportunity to further abuse a former partner because legal protection did not extend to some of those situations either.

* International Day Against Violence Against Women is the first day of the global 16 Days of Action Opposing Violence Against Women, during which Women’s Aid will run its annual email and online awareness campaign and other activities.