Domestic violence victims may be offered anonymity

Victims of domestic violence could be offered the same anonymity as rape victims to persuade more of them to go to court, the Solicitor General said yesterday.

Announcing a government crackdown on the crime, Harriet Harman said the Law Commission should consider the change as part of an in-depth review of the law.

Among the other measures being planned are powers to impose restraining orders on perpetrators of abuse, reviews of murders involving domestic violence and the creation of specialist courts for such cases.

When court sentences were considered too lenient, the Solicitor General said she would refer cases to the Court of Appeal. Ms Harman also called for a "cultural change" in society to ensure domestic violence was treated seriously, just as drink-driving had become morally unacceptable.

Abuse in the home accounts for nearly a quarter of all violent crime and latest figures show that two women every week are murdered by their partners or husbands.

Ms Harman said many more women would be likely to give evidence against abusive partners if they knew their names would be kept confidential.

"I think women are deterred from reporting the crime because often they are protecting not just their own but their children's privacy," she said.

"It is an extra burden to have all their intimate details of their private lives publicised. I'm certainly clear that one reason why women are prepared to go to the family courts but not to criminal courts is the fear of washing their dirty laundry in public.

"You might need to look at the issue of victim confidentiality beyond sexual offences. I think it's something which, if the Law Commission were to look across the board at issues of substantive law and procedure, that's something that could be included in that."

Ms Harman, speaking in London at the first conference of Crown Prosecution Service officers specialising in the field, said men needed to realise they could not get away with being criminals at home.

"We need a culture change which says that just as women do not expect to be punched and hit when they go to work, they do not expect to be punched and hit when they are out in the street, we must not accept women being punched and hit at home," she said.

To underline the point, sentencing policy should be reviewed so an offender's good behaviour outside the home, should not be used as mitigation for violence against his family, she said.

Ms Harman said 37 per cent of all female murders were committed by their partners. In 1999, 92 women were killed in domestic violence, and in 1998, 19,000 women and 28,000 children sought sanctuary in women's refuges.

Reviews of domestic violence murders, similar to reviews that follow all child murders, should be set up to find what more could have been done by police, social workers and teachers to prevent the situation getting out of control.

A register of criminal offences affecting families should be kept so police, prosecutors and courts can assess the previous history of abuse when a case comes before them.

Any breaches of non-molestation orders could be made a criminal and not just a civil offence as at present. Similarly, restraining orders could be imposed to prevent an offender from harassing his victim after he has been convicted and served any sentence.

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