Yesterday the Domestic Abuse Bill received Royal Assent and became the Domestic Abuse Act.
This Act contains a wide range of important new protections including:
ensuring that abusers will no longer be allowed to directly cross-examine their victims in the family and civil courts
giving the police new powers to provide victims with immediate protection from abusers, while courts will be able to hand out new Domestic Abuse Protection Orders to help prevent offending by forcing perpetrators to take steps to change their behaviour
creating a new offence of non-fatal strangulation
clamping down on the 'rough sex' defence
and of course, making it an offence to threaten to share intimate photos/videos of someone. Big thank you to Natasha Saunders for all her work on this - her bravery and courage in coming forward to tell her story in hope that it will protect others is to be commended!