My friend Leah was brutally attacked by a man she was in a short relationship with (4 months) Things moved quickly with him wanting to spend all his time with her and often making reasons to why he needed to be at her home. Now some people may say that she should have asked him to leave or call the relationship off but as a single mother of 4 the attention was nice she was sucked in by his nice guy routine. Like so many women and men she fell in love with the person he wanted her to believe he was. This man was known in the community to be violent and had been abusive in previous relationships but he proclaimed to be a changed man but as an outsider I had my concerns so I made an application for Claire’s Law on Leah’s behalf. Unfortunately the information wasn’t disclosed soon enough and he assaulted her after turning up at her home and unleashed an unprovoked attack on her by punching her in the face so hard that it split her eyebrow open! He then proceeded to punch her from behind, strangle her and put a pillow over her face! Neighbours heard her screams for help and called the police. He told them that she had fell down the stairs even though the blood was upstairs. He was remanded into custody and today (4 weeks later) he stood in court and pleaded not guilty! This meant that Leah had to stand in court and relive the ordeal with his barrister telling her that she was lying! The defence basically said that she caused the injuries to herself because she wanted to ruin the defendant’s life. Leah had to go through this with her abuser sitting there smirking at her and his ex partner sniggering in the gallery. This is wrong on so many levels. It’s no wonder that so many people don’t speak up about the abuse they endure or have the strength to stand up in court against the people who have hurt them. Today justice wasn’t served and the animal that caused her to bare a scar on her face for the rest of her life was found not guilty due to lack of evidence and walked free even though the evidence of Leah’s injury was very apparent and he has a history of abuse towards several women spanning over a 10 year period ( this was disclosed by Claire’s Law) 

Why should anyone who has been hurt/ abused have to go through the ordeal of being made to feel like they have made their assault up and belittled in front of their abuser and anyone else who attends court to support these violent people by a barrister who is just thinking about their pay cheque! 
Leah showed courage and dignity in the court room today and her bravery was outstanding.

Others won’t be so strong and will fall apart in the same situation and this needs to change. No one should be made to feel inferior in front of their attacker and belittled in a court of law.