XCR (85) 106
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(a) to call the police;
(b)
(c)
(a)
to take out a private summons for assault;
to seek an injunction, namely a court order, requiring the offending spouse to desist, on threat of imprisonment if the injunction is disobeyed; or
to leave home.
In respect of the first, the police investigate any allegation of violence and will take any appropriate prosecution action although such cases are often difficult to prove in court. With regard to the second, the magistrates court's powers are limited to fining or imprisoning the offender if he is found guilty after what may be a protracted hearing during which time the abused spouse remains at risk of further violence. The disadvantage of the third option is that, in order to obtain an injunction, the abused spouse must first have commenced or given an undertaking to the court to commence divorce or separation proceedings, a course on which he or she will be reluctant to embark if there is still hope that the marriage can be saved.
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At present, the spouse who does not have an estate or interest i11 the matrimonial home IUDS the risk of being excluded from it by the offending spouse if he or she has been forced to leave by the conduct of the
of the latter. The law at present cannot compel such an offending spouse to allow the other to return to it. Nor do the courts at present have the power со exclude one of the parties to the marriage from occupying the home if that party has an estate or interest in it.