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EVENT DATE

30/09/2026

9:30am - 4:15pm

From Closed Doors to Digital Spaces: Rethinking Abuse and Control in Family Law

Wednesday 30^th September 2026 at Hertfordshire University - 9:30am to 4:15pm

£40 per person

Overview

This full-day conference, organised by the Hertfordshire Local Family Justice Board and chaired by HHJ Vavrecka, will explore how domestic abuse is experienced, identified and addressed within the family justice system, with particular focus on modern developments such as digital abuse, coercive control and technology-facilitated harm. Bringing together leading practitioners from the legal, policing, academic and support sectors, the event will examine the challenges these issues present in contemporary family proceedings and the wider impact on victims, survivors and children.

Key topics explored

• Lived experiences of domestic abuse and survivor perspectives
• Recognising and responding to domestic abuse in family proceedings
• Digital abuse, coercive control and technology-facilitated harm
• The rise and influence of the manosphere in modern abuse dynamics
• Police case studies and investigative approaches
• The developmental and psychological impact of domestic abuse on children

Speakers

• Sir Stephen Cobb – newly appointed President of the Family Division
• Paul Deakin & Michelle Phillips – Domestic Abuse Practice Development Managers at Cafcass, seconded at Safe Lives Domestic Abuse Charity
• Dr Charlotte Proudman – Barrister and Founder of Proudmans Law
• Dr Ruth Weir – Deputy Director of the Violence and Society Centre at City St George’s University
• Detective Chief Inspector Richard Fitton – Detective in the Hertfordshire Domestic Abuse Investigation and Safeguarding Team
• Dr Swanepoel – Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist

Booking Information

The conference fee is £40.00, which includes refreshments and lunch. Spaces are limited and early registration is encouraged.

To reserve your place, please click on the link provided.

This promises to be a valuable opportunity to learn from leading experts, share insights with colleagues and explore how family justice professionals can respond effectively to the evolving nature of domestic abuse.

This conference will be of interest to professionals and academics working across family law, child welfare, domestic abuse, safeguarding, policing, social care and related fields. Please feel free to circulate this invitation amongst your colleagues.

We look forward to welcoming you.

Programme of Events

9:30am – Registration

Tea and coffee served to attendees

10:00am – Greetings and Welcome

Danielle Peters on behalf of Hertfordshire Family Justice Board

10:05am – Keynote Address and Introduction with HHJ Vavrecka

10:15am – Domestic Abuse Through the Lens of Lived Experience – Paul Deakin and Michelle Phillips

Paul Deakin is the Domestic Abuse Practice Development Manager at Cafcass seconded from SafeLives where she is Head of Practice. Paul has worked in the public and voluntary sector for over 20 years. She joined Safe Lives in 2008 as a trainer and assessor for IDVA and MARAC. She was a MARAC Quality Assurance Assessor before becoming the MARAC Manager for the MARAC Development Programme. For five years Paul has been the lead for SafeLives’ Beacon Sites, piloting and implementing Whole Family Integrated Services. Paul has experience of working within the Criminal and Family justice systems. Prior to working for SafeLives, Paul was an IDVA based in a hospital (primarily covering A & E and maternity departments) and has frontline knowledge and experience of supporting domestic abuse victims and working with multi agency partners.

Michelle Phillips has worked for national domestic abuse charity SafeLives for almost 20 years, initially in a MARAC development role and IDVA trainer. As Head of Innovation Michelle leads Authentic Voice, the commitment to place lived expertise at the heart of all SafeLives do working closely with the expertise of SafeLives Changemakers and Pioneers. It was their lived expertise and wanting better for victims and survivors within the family justice system that led to a 4 year partnership then 3 year secondment with Cafcass to work from the inside out to help improve their response to domestic abuse. This work is rooted in lived expertise and includes developing their domestic abuse practice policy, supporting a national network of domestic abuse practice champions, co-chairing a multi-agency domestic abuse practice reference group and the roll out of Child Focused Courts.

This talk will explore the national picture of domestic abuse, and delegates will be given the opportunity to hear directly from two survivors whose lived expertise is helping to shape improved responses across Hertfordshire, which includes the Family Justice System. Discover how their voices are driving meaningful change at system, organisational and individual levels.

11:00am - Coercive Control and Digital Abuse: Recognising, Responding to and Challenging Technology-Facilitated Abuse - Dr Charlotte Proudman

Dr Charlotte Proudman is an award-winning family law barrister and founder of Proudmans, a specialist family law firm representing survivors of domestic abuse. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed book He Said She Said: Truth, Trauma and the Struggle for Justice in Family Court.

She will explore the growing intersection between coercive control and digital abuse within modern family proceedings. From surveillance through phones and social media to online harassment, tracking and intimidation, digital technologies are increasingly used to extend patterns of coercive and controlling behaviour. Drawing on her legal practice and advocacy for survivors, Dr Charlotte Proudman will examine how family justice professionals can better recognise, respond to and challenge technology-facilitated abuse while safeguarding survivors and children in an evolving digital landscape.

11:45am – 15-minute break

12:00pm – Teenage Relationship Abuse in the Digital Age: Understanding Hidden Harm – Dr Ruth Weir

Dr Ruth Weir is Deputy Director and Senior Research Fellow in Criminology at the Violence and Society Centre, City St George’s, University of London. She leads research on teenage relationship abuse and policing for the VISION consortium and two further TRA projects funded by the Police STAR fund and the Home Office. In 2024 she co-founded the National Working Group on Teenage Relationship Abuse with Deputy Chief Constable Katy Barrow-Grint— now with over 120 members strong across policy, practice, third sector and academia. Before academia, Ruth worked in policy, research and intelligence roles in local government and the Home Office.

Adolescence is a pivotal moment in the trajectory of violence, yet teenage relationship abuse remains largely invisible within current systems – increasingly so as it moves into digital spaces. Constant connectivity, social media, and messaging platforms have opened new pathways for coercive control, monitoring, and harassment among young people, while online influencers and algorithm-driven content shape harmful norms around gender, power, and relationships before abuse even begins offline. Drawing on a unique collaboration between policing and academia, alongside a national multiagency working group, this presentation explores how new and emerging research is uncovering hidden harm both online and offline, strengthening data and evidence on technology-facilitated abuse, and informing more effective responses across systems.

12:45 - Lunch

1:45pm - Domestic Abuse in a Digital Age: Understanding Emerging Harm, the Manosphere, and the Role of DAPOs in Protecting Victims and Children – DCI Richard Fitton

DCI Richard Fitton has been a police officer for 23 years and a detective for 19 years. DCI Fitton has worked in the Domestic Abuse unit since 2024 and manages investigations into domestic abuse and the safeguarding teams, including civil orders and Clare’s Law disclosures.

This presentation will explore the changing landscape of domestic abuse, examining how traditional patterns of coercion and control are increasingly being facilitated, amplified and sustained through technology. Drawing on operational policing experience, the session will consider the rise of digital domestic abuse, including online harassment, cyberstalking, image-based abuse, surveillance through technology, and the influence of online misogynistic communities and the "manosphere" in shaping harmful attitudes and behaviours. Through a policing lens, the presentation will examine how these forms of abuse manifest within family justice proceedings and the significant impact they have on adult victims and children. Particular focus will be given to the challenges faced by professionals in recognising technology-enabled abuse, gathering evidence, assessing risk and safeguarding victims within both criminal and family court settings.

A police case study will be used to illustrate the intersection between physical and digital forms of abuse, highlighting patterns of coercive and controlling behaviour, offender tactics, investigative opportunities and multi-agency responses. The case study will also demonstrate the long-term impact on victims and children, and the importance of effective information sharing between police, Cafcass, social care, legal professionals and the judiciary. The presentation will further explore the introduction of Domestic Abuse Protection Orders (DAPOs) and their potential to transform victim protection by providing a more flexible and comprehensive civil order capable of addressing both physical and online abuse. The session will consider how DAPOs can be used to impose conditions relating to digital contact, online harassment, stalking behaviours and technology-enabled abuse, while strengthening the overall safeguarding framework for victims and children.

2:30pm - Address from Sir Stephen Cobb, the President of the Family Division

Sir Stephen Cobb, the President of the Family Division, was sworn in on 14 April 2026. He was called to the Bar, Inner Temple, in 1985 and took Silk in 2003. He started his judicial career as a Recorder in 2004 and was authorised to hear cases under section 9(1) of the Senior Courts Act 1981 in 2009. He was appointed as a High Court Judge in 2013 and was assigned to the Family Division; he also sat in the Administrative Court of the Kings Bench Division and was a nominated judge of the Court of Protection. He was appointed to the Court of Appeal in June 2024, and took his place in 2025. He served as a Family Presiding Judge (North Eastern Circuit) between 2015 and 2021. He was the chair of the former president of the Family Division’s private law working group and was the lead judge during the HMCTS reform programme

3.00pm – 15-minute refreshment break

3.15pm - Children as victims in their own right: the impact of domestic abuse on children and why early intervention matters for the next generation - Dr Swanepoel

Dr Annie Swanepoel is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist with qualifications including MBChB, PhD, and FRCPsych. Dr Swanepoel works with children with intellectual disability in NELFT and has experience across inpatient and outpatient CAMHS settings. She holds the Cardiff University Bond Solon Expert Witness Certificate in Civil and Family Law and has prepared medicolegal reports for Local Authorities and family courts covering areas such as psychiatric assessments, developmental trauma, and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Dr Swanepoel will be discussing the impact of domestic abuse on children behind closed doors, with particular interest in evolutionary perspectives on child development and mental health, following contributions to research in these areas.

4:00 - Closing remarks with HHJ Vavrecka

CONTACT

Geraldine Poulain

[email protected]

LOCATION

University of Hertfordshire

Fielder Centre

Hatfield Avenue, Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL10 9TP