🪞SWANK LOG ENTRY
The Domestic Violence Doctrine
Or, Why Asking a Man Who Once Hit a Woman to Judge Her Parenting Is Not Just Bad Practice — It’s Dangerous
Filed: 19 November 2024
Reference Code: SWK-RISK-FAILURE-2024-11
PDF Filename: 2024-11-19_SWANK_Letter_Westminster_DomesticViolenceMisuse.pdf
One-Line Summary: Polly Chromatic clarifies that contacting a mother’s abuser for parenting commentary is not safeguarding — it’s state-enabled endangerment.
I. What Happened
In a letter addressed to Westminster Children’s Services — including Kirsty Hornal, Fiona Dias-Saxena, and Sarah Newman — Polly Chromatic raised a point so obvious it should never have to be made:
“I don’t think you should be contacting the fathers of children whose mothers have been victims of domestic violence.”
She wasn’t being metaphorical.
She wasn’t being abstract.
She was stating, with precision, that this institutional practice is sick.
And she’s right.
II. What the Complaint Establishes
This email identifies:
A systemic safeguarding failure: contact with known or past perpetrators of domestic abuse as a matter of default
A misapplication of ‘balance’: asking abusive fathers to comment on mothers’ parenting as if all opinions are neutral
A personal clarification: in this case, the father is not a current risk — but that’s not the point
Polly writes:
“To ask a father who hit a woman to speak on her mothering is ignorance and puts her and the children at risk.”
This is not a debate.
It’s a safeguarding principle.
And Westminster has forgotten it.
III. Why SWANK Logged It
Because safeguarding cannot be policy-neutral — it must be trauma-informed.
Because there is no procedural justification for re-inviting risk into a child’s life in the name of ‘engagement.’
Because this practice does not reflect care — it reflects cultural erasure, particularly toward mothers of colour and their complex truths.
Because Polly Chromatic, once again, is being forced to correct institutions that should already know better.
And because this letter proves, yet again, that British safeguarding is not broken — it’s uninterested in the nuance of harm.
IV. Violations
Section 47 Children Act 1989 – Failure to protect children from known risk environments
Article 3 ECHR – Exposure to risk of inhuman or degrading treatment through forced proximity to prior abuser
Safeguarding Code of Practice – Engaging abusers in evaluative processes without justification
Domestic Abuse Act 2021 – Failure to screen parenting commentary through trauma-informed criteria
Professional Negligence – Asking known violent parties for opinions on their victims
V. SWANK’s Position
We consider this letter a benchmark in maternal lucidity — a woman stating clearly what institutions pretend not to hear.
Let the record reflect:
Polly Chromatic made no accusation beyond the obvious.
She even contextualised her own family’s situation with care, nuance, and honesty.
But she made it known — for the record and the future:
Contacting an abuser to critique the abused is not due process — it’s complicity.
⚖️ Legal Rights & Archival Footer This Dispatch Has Been Formally Archived by SWANK London Ltd. Every entry is timestamped. Every sentence is jurisdictional. Every structure is protected. This document does not contain confidential family court material. It contains the lawful submissions, filings, and lived experiences of a party to multiple legal proceedings — including civil claims, safeguarding audits, and formal complaints. All references to professionals are strictly in their public roles and relate to conduct already raised in litigation. This is not a breach of privacy. It is the preservation of truth. Protected under Article 10 of the ECHR, Section 12 of the Human Rights Act, and all applicable rights to freedom of expression, legal self-representation, and public interest disclosure. To mimic this format without licence is not homage. It is breach. We do not permit imitation. We preserve it as evidence. This is not a blog. It is a legal-aesthetic instrument. Filed with velvet contempt. Preserved for future litigation. Because evidence deserves elegance, retaliation deserves an archive, and writing is how I survive this pain. Attempts to silence or intimidate this author will be documented and filed in accordance with SWANK protocols. © 2025 SWANK London Ltd. All formatting and structural rights reserved. Use requires express permission or formal licence. Unlicensed mimicry will be cited — as panic, not authorship.