Published on 23 June 2025, Women’s Aid’s latest report, Nineteen More Child Homicides, reveals that over the past nine years, 19 children in the UK were killed by a parent known to be a perpetrator of domestic abuse, in circumstances involving unsafe child contact. This is the third report in a series documenting 67 preventable child deaths over the last thirty years, each case highlighting systemic failings in the family justice system that prioritised parental rights over child safety.
Between 2015 and 2024, the number of families affected increased by 50%, with 18 families losing loved ones, compared to 12 in the previous decade. In these cases, a total of 28 lives were lost, including 19 children, three mothers, and two dogs. The children, aged between just over three weeks and 11 years old, were mostly killed by men. Seventeen out of 18 perpetrators were male, and 15 were the children’s fathers.
The report identifies persistent systemic failures in family courts, citing a prevailing “pro-contact culture” that continues to prioritise parental involvement even when there is evidence of domestic abuse. This culture often leads to decisions that ignore the risks posed by coercive control and other forms of abuse.
Five years after the Ministry of Justice’s Harm Panel report highlighted serious shortcomings in how family courts protect children, Women’s Aid warns that many of the recommended reforms have still not been implemented. The lack of political and judicial commitment is blamed for the continued failure to safeguard vulnerable children.
The report also draws attention to a widespread lack of understanding among professionals regarding coercive control. This, combined with an overly optimistic belief that abusive parents can still play a positive role, has contributed to fatal decisions.
Women’s Aid is calling for the repeal of the presumption of parental involvement under Section 1(2A) of the Children Act 1989. They argue that this legal presumption places children at risk by requiring courts to consider contact with abusive parents, regardless of the harm it might cause.
Farah Nazeer, Chief Executive of Women’s Aid, said: “When Women’s Aid published the original Twenty-Nine Child Homicides report in 2004, we never imagined that two decades on, we would have to produce a further two reports documenting avoidable losses. Every single one of the deaths in this new report, as well as those in our previous ones, were preventable but a lack of action to reform an institution that is not fit for purpose ultimately let these children, and their families, down. Every case is one too many. This new report exposes the life-threatening consequences of not acting on well-documented risks of failing to address the pro-contact culture and must be used to finally drive long overdue change of the family courts’ response to child survivors. We must prioritise the safety of children over an archaic presumption and put an end to any more avoidable child deaths.”
Claire Throssell MBE, Women’s Aid Survivor Ambassador, whose sons Jack and Paul were among the children killed, added: “Ten years ago, Women’s Aid reached out their hand to me after their research found that 19 children were killed after unsafe, court-ordered, contact with parents who were known perpetrators of domestic abuse. Two of those children were my precious sons, Jack and Paul. The fact that 10 years on, more children have been killed, and the presumption of contact has not been removed legislatively or culturally is shameful and proof that successive governments have failed to protect children at risk of harm from their parents. I call on the Ministry of Justice to listen to the 108,000 voices in the Child First petition handed into Downing Street by myself and Women’s Aid in November. I ask them to remember the voice of a dying boy in the darkness who told as many people as he could what had happened at the hands of his father but was ignored. 29 children in the first report, 19 in the second, and 19 in the third. These deaths were heartbreakingly preventable, and action needs to be taken to stop any more avoidable deaths.”
The report backs the Child First campaign’s demand for urgent legislative and cultural change. With more than 108,000 petition signatures, campaigners urge the government to end unsafe child contact with abusive parents. Women’s Aid warns that without firm action, more children will be placed in harm’s way due to persistent failures in the family court system.
