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White House Correspondent
Cherie Blair has opened up about how she was pushed down the stairs by a domestic abuser while representing his vulnerable victim.
The leading barrister said her attacker was out of control and clearly felt entirely justified in his attack on her, which took place when she was a young lawyer.
In a deeply personal interview with The Independent, the wife of former prime minister Sir Tony Blair also described her guilt after a client was killed by her abusive partner because she returned home as she had nowhere else to go.
Recalling the attack on her, Ms Blair said: “As a young barrister when I was in court and we got the [restraining] order against the perpetrator, as I came out of court, he followed me and he pulled me down the stairs in the court.
“I had to be rescued by the court staff because he was so out of control. He believed he was entitled to behave in that way, he was perfectly prepared to attack me.”
She added: “I’ve been in court when we’ve also seen judges being attacked.”
Ms Blair spoke out as she backed The Independent’s and Refuge charity Brick by Brick campaign which aims to raise £300,000 to build a safe house for domestic abuse survivors, and highlighted the desperate need for more refuges to be built.
Be a brick, buy a brick and donate here or text BRICK to 70560 to donate £15
“I can always remember one client of mine who got relief from the court,” she said. “But afterwards, as I’m afraid happens, with nowhere else to go, she returned to the matrimonial home – she was killed by her partner.”
Detailing the devastating impact that the murder had on her, she said: “It was very difficult, I felt so guilty. Could I have done more? It has stuck with me and remains with me ever since, that tragedy.”
Calling for change in how society punishes domestic abusers, the KC said: “We have to challenge the inbuilt sexism, which says that somehow women are not as entitled to respect as men.
“As a society, we are standing up and saying ‘this is not acceptable behaviour’.”
Explaining how she first became involved with supporting domestic abuse survivors, Ms Blair said: “Refuge’s work is incredibly important to me and has been so all my professional life.
“It all started way back in 1976. I was a young barrister starting off in my career and in those days I don’t think anybody – the lawyers, the judges, the police – really understood how serious domestic abuse was, and therefore it was regarded as a very good way for a young barrister to start getting some advocacy experience.
“They would send me along to the county court to get an order either restraining, usually a man, from assaulting his partner or an order actually excluding him from the home.”
Ms Blair admitted that she had not known anything about domestic abuse until she began representing victims as a young barrister.
”I had been brought up in an all-woman household so it wasn’t really an issue I would ever come across,” she said. “Certainly, no one talked about it during my childhood.
“I found myself [during her early twenties] in these courts meeting these women and the occasional man who, in the privacy and sanctity of their own home, had experienced this horrible violence.
“It opened my eyes to the fact that the world was not as safe a place as I thought it was.”
While the issue has generated more discussion and political lobbying over the last decades, Ms Blair believes there is still a way to go in tackling domestic abuse.
“In 1976, it was the first time that there was a law that specifically dealt with domestic abuse,” she told The Independent.
“I thought, well ‘we’ve got laws now, it is all going to get a lot better’, but the reality is, as we look at the statistics, the needle hasn’t actually moved that much.”
Encouraging readers to donate to The Independent‘s life-changing campaign, she said: “The Independent readers supporting this campaign are doing an amazing thing.
“If you are a family, it can be very difficult to find a space in the refuge because they have limited spaces, and there are a lot of people to accommodate.
“Say one of your children is a teenage boy… there aren’t many refuges because of the difficulty that so many women in the refuge have experienced with men. They’re not keen to take on older teenage boys. A teenage boy could easily still be at school. Where’s he going to go?”
Describing the refuge that is planned in the campaign: “This is going to be a purpose-built home where families will find a space to be able to decompress, readjust, and then start living a life without fear.
“It’s a wonderful idea and I have every hope that thanks to the generosity of The Independent‘s readers, we will build this refuge. We will follow it brick by brick, and it will be put to good use for many years to come.”
Ms Blair’s admission comes days after BBC presenter Victoria Derbyshire told her story about experiencing domestic abuse during her childhood.
Recalling the terrible ordeal her family suffered, the journalist described how her father once threw scalding soup over her and put his hands around her throat.
Please donate now to the Brick by Brick campaign, launched by The Independent and charity Refuge, to help raise £300,000 to build a safe space for women where they can escape domestic abuse, rebuild their lives and make a new future. Text BRICK to 70560 to donate £15
The national domestic abuse helpline offers support for women on 0808 2000 247, or you can visit the Refuge website. There is a dedicated men’s advice line on 0808 8010 327
