Abusers denied children food during lockdown

Children were told their mothers were going to die from Covid-19, denied food, education and medical attention, and exposed to violence by abusive parental figures during lockdowns, a new report has found.

An organisation that supports domestic abuse victims claims ``ambiguous’’ government advice about shared child custody arrangements during lockdowns and the way the systems responded to Covid helped create an environment that ``further enabled violence and abuse’’.

A report by The Backbone Collective, a national coalition of survivors of violence against women in Aotearoa, compiled information from a survey of 35 women who have shared childcare arrangements with their abusive former partners.

Many of those former partners reportedly ``weaponised’’ the pandemic restrictions against them.

``These abusers used the isolation, fear, risk of illness and lack of clarity and inconsistency of information to control, isolate and abuse their ex/partners and children,’’ it said.

The report came after the organisation wrote to government and court officials in March 2020, seeking clarity about the rules for parents and children who were subject to parenting shared care orders, warning of the potential for abusers to use the pandemic to exacerbate their abuse.

Two days earlier, Principal Family Court Judge Jacquelyn Moran clarified the rules regarding care arrangements of children subject to Family Court orders, saying the overriding consideration was for parents to make decisions that were in the best interest of their children.

However, Backbone Collective cofounder Deborah Mackenzie said it would have been ``impossible’’ for women who had suffered family violence to put conflict aside.

``Pretending that people can just get on with each other because there is a pandemic going on is dangerously unrealistic when there is violence and abuse present,’’ she said.

The survey results found the concerns from the mothers were ``deeply connected’’ to the experiences of their children, reporting that some abusers refused to let children speak to or see their mother for significant periods.

The 68 children in the study who spent time with their abuser during lockdown – two-thirds of whom were under the age of 14 – experienced a range of abusive behaviours, including most being prevented from contacting their mothers, more than half being verbally abused and a quarter physically abused.

``Some children were neglected and denied food and attention, some were kept from participating in online learning and denied medical attention,’’ the report said.

The pandemic was used to ``psychologically abuse’’ the children, survey respondents said, with nearly half reporting that the abuser told their children their mother was going to die from Covid-19 and they would never see her again.

Additionally, it was reported that abusers flouted restrictions, exposed children to others during lockdowns, refused to share close contact information, and in some cases refused to vaccinate the children or vaccinated them without their mother’s consent.

Shine senior family violence adviser Rachel Kain said the findings reflected what her organisation witnessed. ``Covid didn’t cause family violence, but we saw a lot of increased severity of the violence. Part of that I think is to do with the isolation,’’ she said.

``We had a lot of really extreme controlling behaviour, a lot of bad physical assaults, a lot of psychological control and weaponising Covid.’’

Inspector Janelle Timmins, a police manager of integrated community response, said there had been a spike in family harm reports during alert level restrictions. ``We recognise that the past two years with periods of Covid restrictions did put considerable strain on a number of families, and alert level restrictions may have made reporting incidents more difficult,’’ she said.

Timmins said police recognised that the restrictions created extra pressure where co-parenting orders were in place.

Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence Marama Davidson said she would work through the report closely.

``We were aware from the outset that lockdowns could exacerbate the pressures that can be risk factors for violence, including feelings of isolation for victimsurvivors.’’

Davidson said family violence and sexual violence services had been categorised as essential services, so they could operate during lockdown and additional funding was provided.

``While people were never expected to stay in unsafe situations during the pandemic and information was put out to raise awareness on this, we welcome any insights on how we can improve those messages getting through to those families and individuals at risk.’’