Today in the Culture of Abuse

[Content Note: Graphic images of injuries at link. Domestic violence; misogyny.]

A woman in Britain who survived a vicious attack by her ex-fiance has been threatened with imprisonment if she defies a judge's order to write letters to him:

Natalie Allman, 29, has reportedly been ordered by a judge to send letters three times a year to former lover Jason Hughes, even though he is currently serving time in prison after he abused her for seven hours in front of their twin sons.

Allman told The Sunday People today that under custody laws she must send updates of the couple's five-year-old sons, along with photos, or face contempt of court.

She told the paper: "I feel betrayed that after everything he did his rights mean more than mine – more than my children's. We are the victims, not him. I thought he was going to kill me that night for no reason and my boys saw that. They were terrified."

Hughes is currently serving nine years in prison after being found guilty of malicious wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm after repeatedly punching Ms Allman in the face with weights and then slitting her throat in 2012.

Nine years. For what was clearly an attempted murder.

You know what? If you torture and try to kill your children's mother in front of them, you lose the right to have access to their lives, unless and until they are old enough to consent to a relationship with you.

Evidently, the courts disagree with that. In which case, the courts need to find some other way of updating this violent asshole on his kids' lives, because compelling the woman he nearly killed to do it is cruel and indecent. No one should be legally obliged to maintain contact with someone who harmed them.

And, seriously, the MRAs who constantly caterwaul about "fathers' rights" need to shove it up their asses once and for all. There is no shortage of sympathy for fathers having access to their children, no matter what, on either side of the pond.

There is a petition on behalf of Natalie Allman and her children here.