Women’s Aid responds to release of new court documents on the death of Finley Boden

Lucy Hadley, Head of Policy at Women’s Aid, said: 

“These papers clearly demonstrate that there remain serious questions with children’s social care and family court professionals’ understanding of domestic abuse and its impact on children. As the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 recognised, children are victims of domestic abuse in their own right – it has severe impact on their health and wellbeing and can pose a very real danger to their life.  

“Furthermore, we must ask questions about how effectively magistrates can preside over cases of such complexity, especially when a parent has an existing conviction for domestic abuse and there are multiple other safeguarding concerns.  

“We must do more to protect children and young people from the devastating impacts of domestic abuse. Understanding exactly what happened in the case of Finley Boden is paramount if we want to prevent more tragic cases like his in future.”