It’s a few minutes before 10am on a dreary January morning in Glasgow, and I’m the only woman in a corridor full of men.
They lean against marble-tiled walls or perch on sharp-edged benches that run down the centre of the long, rectangular hallway. Most are alone, scrolling on phones or glancing at watches. A man in a Nike tracksuit and black puffer jacket paces back and forth, eyes on the ground. Another, in a baseball cap, rants loudly down the phone in a language I don’t understand.
When two of the men recognise each other, there are smiles and handshakes, a slap on the back, a “how’s it going?” The resulting conversation meanders jovially through work shifts, mutual friends and weekend plans, in the manner of acquaintances bumping into each other in a supermarket car park. Were it not for the crackle of a police radio or the swish of a passing lawyer’s robes, it would be easy to forget we’re in the queue for Glasgow’s domestic abuse court.
This is the hallway outside Court 16, on the top floor of the city’s brutalist Sheriff Court building, just across the Clyde from the city centre. Each morning from Tuesday to Thursday, those accused of domestic abuse offences appear here for case management. Some are at the beginning of their court journey; others are returning for updates. The men around me are accused variously of offences including threatening and abusive behaviour, assault of different degrees, coercive control, and stalking. A man wearing a T-shirt printed repeatedly with the word “obsession” shifts uncomfortably as a police officer walks past.
Today, there are 28 names scrawled on the list pinned outside the courtroom. Shortly after 10am, a red light flickers on. Court is in session. The heavy wooden door opens, and a court officer emerges to summon the first of them inside.
Glasgow’s domestic abuse court was established in 2004, in response to a few basic facts. Cases were taking too long. Victims felt failed by the system and often withdrew their participation. Specialist expertise was thin on the ground.
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