Valerie's Law: MPs hear specialist support needed for black domestic abuse victims

Labour MP Abena Oppong-Asare will open the debate at the Petitions Committee

MPs will debate a call for specialist support for black domestic abuse victims.

More than 106,000 supporters signed a petition for Valerie's Law, triggering a Commons debate.

The campaign is named after Valerie Forde, whose former partner murdered her and her baby girl, despite previously reporting him to police.

Labour MP Abena Oppong-Asare will put the case for a new law to a home office minister.

The Met was heavily criticised over the death of Ms Forde, who had reported Roland McKoy for threatening to burn down her house, six weeks before her murder. But officers recorded it as a threat to property, rather than a threat to life.

Ms Oppong-Asare will set out how issues including racism and "adultification", where young black women are perceived as older than they are and not treated as victims such as in the case of Child Q, play a role in them not receiving the same support as white women.

The MP for Thamesmead and Erith is backing a new law to compel police to undergo cultural training to address this.

She will share the story of one domestic abuse survivor who had two children under three years old.

She is expected to say: "Despite seeking help, they were turned away by multiple councils and other agencies - each saying it was someone else's problem. Eventually, they were pushed back to their perpetrator.

"Victims and survivors may only have the energy to seek help once. This is why every agency - including councils, police forces, the NHS, and third sector organisations - must have the training and skills to adequately support black women from the start.

"That is all that Valerie's Law seeks to do."

"Adultification" and racism was behind the abuse of Child Q, Ngozi Fulani and Djanomi Headley of domestic abuse charity Sistah Space have said.

Ngozi Fulani, CEO of Sistah Space, a specialist domestic violence charity working with black victims, said the need for Valerie's Law was clear.

She said: "Without mandating this cultural competency training, black women are left to gamble with their lives on whether those responding to the scene have received enough cultural training to understand the unique signs of abuse in black environments, or on black skin or other relevant considerations.

"Too often black women are failed by law enforcement, the education system and other government and non-government agencies, paying with their lives for mistakes that can be avoided by simply implementing Valerie's Law. It's just lifesaving training."

In its initial response to the petition, provided on in July last year, the government said: "Current training on domestic abuse should include recognising the specific needs of victims due to their ethnicity or cultural background.

"Government does not feel it is necessary to mandate it."

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