Tower Hamlets council criticized by judge for supporting ‘rapist’ father in domestic violence case

A judge has harshly criticized London’s city council over its handling of a domestic violence case. In the case, it was found that a mother was raped twice.

Tower Hamlets social workers ignored a court’s findings that a father of three had committed “very serious domestic abuse” against his wife, including rape and strangulation, in a custody case.

Instead, officers supported the couple’s three children staying with their father at the family home, even though the court found he had also physically abused them.

The family cannot be identified for legal reasons, but Her Honor Judge Madeline Reardon said Tower Hamlets should be named against their wishes so they could be “held to account” for their “dangerous” actions.

“The local authority’s actions in this case constitute, in my opinion, a serious breach of its child protection responsibilities,” she said in a critical, confidential judgment.

She added that by supporting the father’s custody of the children, social workers had “facilitated and reinforced patterns of significant domestic abuse.”

The family court in East London heard how the couple’s marriage collapsed after the mother reported rape in 2022.

She later moved out of the family home, with police and social workers viewing her “solely as a perpetrator and not a victim.”

The father then encouraged two of the children to “copy his abusive behavior toward the mother.”

Judge Reardon ordered that the mother be allowed to return to the family home to care for two of the three children, while the father was ordered to move out.

He will be allowed to see the children three times a week if social workers support this.

Citing children’s right to privacy, Judge Reardon declined to release the full ruling.