A woman who was ordered by a family court judge to speak to her ex-partner who raped and abused her has won her appeal against the judgement.
The woman, who has not been named, is in dispute with her ex-partner over arrangements regarding their child.
The boy, who also cannot be identified, lives with the woman, but the man wants to spend time with him.
Initially, a judge had said the woman must speak directly with her ex-partner to discuss the arrangements for contact. A “child arrangements order” was set up with the woman’s “apparent approval”.
The woman challenged the order, telling a more senior judge at an appeal hearing that she “felt intimidated and distressed” by the initial proceedings.
She “felt under pressure” to consent to the arrangements and did not feel that they were in her son’s best interests.
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Judge Emma Nott, who considered the woman’s appeal at a recent private court hearing in Reading, Berkshire, upheld her challenge, dismissing the child arrangements order.
She concluded the woman had not given “a free and informed consent to contact going ahead”.
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Judge Nott has outlined detail of the case in a ruling published online.
She said another judge had earlier concluded that the man had abused and raped the woman.
