SHERA Research Group International Collective researchers MVAWC

Women allegedly abused by Andrew Tate decry ‘misleading’ Spectator article Complaint sent to Ipso over interview with ‘misogynist influencer’ and brother in Michael Gove-edited magazine Four alleged survivors of sexual abuse by Andrew Tate have complained to the press regulator about an interview with the self-proclaimed misogynist influencer and his brother in the Spectator magazine. The women, who have filed a high court claim accusing Tate of rape, coercive control and assault and battery, claim that the article, written by deputy editor, Freddy Gray, is inaccurate and misleading. Continue reading...

Women allegedly abused by Andrew Tate decry ‘misleading’ Spectator article

'Freedom Day': When the Family Court Lets Go, but the Damage Remains The day they say women and child victim-survivors are 'free' from Family Court proceedings, but they've already lost too much.

This post explores ‘Freedom Day’- the day children can no longer be forced into contact with an abusive parent, nor subjected to interference from courts. It marks the end of a long, traumatic process, & the beginning of another: the aftermath... drelizabethdalgarno.substack.com/p/freedom-da...

#reproductiveabuse #reproductivecoercion #familycourt #familylaw

“The [Family] Court Took My Baby": Reproductive Coercion/Abuse in the Name of Fathers' Rights. 'Neutral' Law, Coercive Outcomes: How Family Courts Police Reproduction

This post discusses reproductive coercion of #mothers/#women in the family courts and the linked outcomes for #children. It attends to the clear contradictions between health policies that promote mother-child bonds & legal policies that suppress this drelizabethdalgarno.substack.com/p/the-family...

General registration open details 👇 @veronicasvard.bsky.social @killedbyproxy.bsky.social @smhall.bsky.social @lovedayh.bsky.social @cris-sciencespo.bsky.social @drmarymcauliffe.bsky.social @sheraresearch.bsky.social @lindaconnolly.bsky.social @proftinamiller.bsky.social @kbrickell.bsky.social

University of Hiroshima, Brunel University, University of Ottawa, Equality Now, The National Family Violence Law Center, and many more to report on the current situations in Colombia, Brazil, Japan, Sri Lanka, Africa, Spain, the UK, the USA, Canada and beyond. More details soon.

This year, we have world-leading expert speakers from the World Health Organization and SVRI - Sexual Violence Research Initiative, Association of Clinical Psychologists UK, Right to Equality,

(including but not limited to unregulated experts, systemic reforms, use of parental alienation theories / alternative approaches and solutions).

Save the date! October 7th 2025:

#Familycourt #HealthJustice #Global #postseparationabuse

Join us for a free online ground-breaking Health Justice Conference focussing on global insights into the family courts and health/human rights impacts for victim survivor women and children

The Invisible Labour of Family Court: Surviving The System That Was Meant To Help The silent burden and drudgery of navigating family court alone, while holding everything else together

We need to talk about the invisible labour of #familycourt. From the court preparation to the managing trauma, just how much of the #familylaw system and broader society is upheld by the invisible labour of women and children? drelizabethdalgarno.substack.com/p/the-invisi...

Little Red Riding Hood's bedtime reading
Enough to make you scream
Well done Nic & Liz @sheraresearch.bsky.social for making waves
No Samba but a dance in Durham Hills for the ink blot witch makers & expert fakers
committees.parliament.uk/writtenevide...

Everybody Scream
youtu.be/03iBgkXb1EE?...

Pornographic Taylor Swift deepfakes generated by Musk's Grok AI Grok Imagine's

"This is not misogyny by accident, it is by design"
My comment on the latest example of AI tech being released without a care about its adverse uses and impacts, particularly on women and girls.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

https://drelizabethdalgarno.substack.com/p/whats-love-got-to-do-with-it-post

We must take urgent steps to address the ongoing and ever-present harm our #familycourts are causing. Our justice systems should protect victim-survivors and not be a tool for further #postseparationabuse of women and children drelizabethdalgarno.substack.com/p/whats-love...

Judge tells colleagues to be ‘on their guard’ over expert witness evidence Patrick Hodge, supreme court’s deputy president, wants judges to improve their scientific and technical literacy

Also: Judges should be “on their guard” re expert witness evidence, according to supreme court judge, who urged legal profession to improve their “scientific and technical literacy” with problems with “people coming forward claiming expertise in pseudoscience” www.theguardian.com/law/2025/aug...

The ‘harmful pseudo-science’ infecting Sheffield’s family courts Dr Maria Downs and the extraordinary growth of ‘parental alienation’

Thank you Jessica Bradley for this important piece on #familycourt with quotes from two of our core members Dr Dalgarno and Dr Barnett
and @drproudman.bsky.social. Rosie said ‘this isn’t parental alienation – we’ve been abused’. Re Dr Maria Downs www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk/the-harmful-...

Can secret recordings be used as evidence in court? If you record a meeting or conversation about your children, without people being aware you’re recording them, can you then produce and rely on that recording

see transparencyproject.org.uk/can-secret-r...

@seethrujustice.transparencyproject.org.uk is it saying litigants are bound by professional rules or the home setting is or both? in law, it seems this is not right in either case

What is your take on this? Still digesting but something striking is the fact that a professional being in a litigant's home turns the litigant's home into a 'professional setting'. Is anyone else struck by this? In what other role does this occur? www.judiciary.uk/guidance-and...

Key recommendations for family courts: 93. Accelerate the conclusion of the inquiry into the mother and Baby Homes in Northern Ireland ensuring effective access to truth, justice and reparations and taking into consideration lessons learned from similar inquiries. 94 Urgently and swiftly prohibit the use of parental alienation and related pseudo-science concepts, appoint only experts who are fully qualified psychologists or psychiatrists; that are regulated by the HCPC and that have regular accredited domestic abuse training. Ensure an end to the of parental involvement between abusive parents and their children at all costs. Prohibit the removal of children from the parent they live with for the purpose of restarting, repairing or improving the child’s relationship with the other parent.

Key recommendations for #familycourt #familylaw to be presented again to the UN Human Rights Council in June 2025

2. Beyond legal barriers, family courts have been criticized for prioritizing parental contact and involvement over the safety of children, sometimes granting access to fathers despite serious allegations and even findings of abuse. Courts repeatedly disregarded domestic violence evidence, instead framing protective mothers as engaging in "parental alienation" With mothers being advised not to raise allegations of domestic violence or child sexual abuse in case they are accused of “parental alienation.” Mothers are also threatened with the removal of their children if they seek to protect their children by limiting contact with abusive fathers. In many cases, children’s voices are not heard or listened to. Such cases expose deep flaws in the system, where the presumption of parental involvement can override safeguarding concerns - links to our paper in bio open access

81. Mothers who have lost the care of their children as a result of custody cases are struggling to come to terms with the loss. They face systematic challenges in accessing justice, exacerbated by legal aid cuts, court biases, and a failure to prioritize child safety in cases involving domestic abuse. The 2013 Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act removed legal aid from most private family law cases, forcing many parents, especially mothers, to represent themselves. By 2024 over half of mothers in custody disputes appeared in court without a lawyer[1], and by 2017, 21,852 parents applied for private law child arrangement cases without legal representation—a 134% increase from 2011[2]. This lack of legal support disproportionately affects lower-income mothers. The result is often prolonged cases, psychological distress, denial of justice and a growing family court backlog, which stood at over100,000 children as of 2013[3]. The lack of justice has forced many mothers to escape the UK to jurisdictions not covered by the Hague Convention on Child Abductions.

44. The UK government’s Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy emphasizes prevention, previously allocating £6.6 million over three years (2022-2025) to this end. However, a significant challenge persists including: Framing violence against women and girls predominantly as a criminal justice issue, focusing on punishing offenders rather than investing adequately in the systemic and societal changes required to address root causes. Prevention efforts remain underfunded, while the implementation of protective measures, victim compensation, and rehabilitation is weak. This punitive approach, coupled with poor enforcement of court judgments and protection orders fosters a sense of impunity for perpetrators, undermining progress. 45. Specialist services for girls and young women under 25, who face disproportionate rates of domestic abuse, are critical yet insufficient. Statutory agencies are positioned to identify and intervene early, but without robust investment, many women at risk are left without support, leading to trauma, school exclusion, or entanglement in the criminal justice system. Efforts to shift harmful social norms, particularly among boys and men, such as Scotland’s Equally Safe strategy, which aims to ensure that young people develop mutually respectful, responsible and confident relationships[1] are to be commended. However, the £6.6 million investment in such policies pales against the scale of need (3.5 million boys) and the scale of sexual and gender-based violence. [35 NSPCC, Child sexual abuse: statistics briefing. [36] Adrienne Barnett, Domestic abuse and private law cases: A literature Review, Ministry of Justice, 2020. [37] https://rapecrisis.org.uk/get-informed/breaking-point/?utm_source=chatgpt.com. [38] https://www.executiveoffice-ni.gov.uk/articles/truth-recovery-design-panel. [39] https://ombudsman.ie/en/publi…

57. Women and girls with disabilities in the UK are particularly vulnerable to sexual and gender-based violence, discrimination, and abuse, yet the response from authorities is often inadequate. The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities raised concerns in 2017, stating that the rights of women and girls with disabilities have not been systematically integrated into gender equality and disability agendas, with a lack of data and measures addressing the compounded effects of multiple and intersectional discrimination[1]. Women and girls with psychosocial disabilities face significant obstacles when attempting to access justice. The prevalent practice of restricting legal capacity makes it difficult for these women to initiate or participate in legal proceedings, and their testimonies are often met with skepticism/ Service providers also tend to be slow in responding to financial abuse, further exacerbating their vulnerability.[2] [1] Ibid. [2] https://www.wbg.org.uk/article/cuts-to-social-security-for-disabled-women/. r stereotypes.

Thank you UN Special Rapporteur #VAWG Reem Alsalem #familycourt

Again the Special Rapporteur recommends #parentalalienation frameworks be prohibited from use in FC, calls for abuse and trauma informed regulated experts in #familycourt & an end to the #presumptionofinvolvement for abusive parents

US Cuts to UN Midwife Projects Will Mean More Infant Deaths US Cuts to UN Midwife Projects Will Mean More Infant Deaths - PassBlue

“In #Sudan, women are giving birth in unimaginable conditions. #Midwives are often the only point of care, not just for childbirth but for detecting and responding to sexual violence. Many have lost everything, yet they keep working.” Shoko Arakaki

www.passblue.com/2025/05/28/u...

New research reveals the children with ‘no voice’ in the family courts - Lancaster University Important decisions are made about a child’s life during private law proceedings – but a strikingly large proportion of children are not seen by the professionals involved, and have no voice, new rese...

Lancaster and Nuffield FJO 2024 findings:
Half of all children did not have an opportunity to formally voice their wishes and feelings in #familycourt
Two fifths of children aged 10 to 13 in England & a greater proportion of older teenagers were unheard www.lancaster.ac.uk/law/news/new...

Arachnid: Hunting the web’s darkest secrets True Crime Podcast · Weekly Series · What if the worst thing that ever happened to you plays out every day, countless times, on anonymous computer screens all over the world.  Everyday tens of millio...

The podcast series Arachnid is now live, highlighting the human costs of decades of inaction over child sexual abuse material, with a focus on the pioneering work of @cdnchildprotect.bsky.social. Listen to the first two episodes here: podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/a...

Disabled celebrities urge Keir Starmer to scrap ‘inhumane’ benefit cuts Exclusive: More than 100 people including Liz Carr and Rosie Jones sign letter criticising Pip and universal credit changes

'If these plans go ahead, 700,000 families already living in #poverty will face further devastation,” they write. “This is not reform; it is cruelty by policy.'

More than 100 disabled celebrities urge Keir Starmer to scrap ‘inhumane’ benefit cuts

#TakingThePIP

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Family law experts push legal framework to guide guardian ad litem reform in Washington A ‘model code’ would have only licensed mental health professionals making parenting plan recommendations to the court

Guardian Ad Litem #USA with no credentials for diagnosing said a mother 'had a personality disorder - contradicting her medical records & contributed to the court’s decision that she posed a greater danger to her children than an alleged rapist father' www.investigatewest.org/investigatew...