Domestic abuse victims would not have to face court questions from their alleged attacker, under a proposal revealed this week.

The Domestic Abuse Bill, which would lead to prison sentences of up to 14 years for domestic abuse crimes, is already being scrutinised in the House of Keys.

And this week, plans to add extra measures were unveiled by Home Affairs member Clare Barber (pictured right).

She obtained permission from the House of Keys to bring forward additional clauses to put into the draft bill.

Mrs Barber said the aim of the additional clauses was to give the courts the power to prevent a defendant from committing further abuse by conducting their own cross-examination of an alleged victim.

’That principle of stopping or preventing abuse is fundamental to this bill as a whole,’ she said.

The additional measures would ’empower the court, where a family or a domestic matter is before it, to intervene where a person representing themselves is using their right to cross-examine the other party in such a way as to effectively abuse them further’.

The defendant could be ordered to stop and either obtain their own legal representation or the court could allocate an advocate to conduct cross-examination.

The measures sent a signal that the courts would protect victims, she said. While MHKs agreed unanimously to allow the new measures to be included in the bill, scrutiny of the additional clauses will not take place until later next month, to allow members time to consider them fully.

The rest of the clauses within the bill, and a number of other amendments, were approved on Tuesday.

The bill defines domestic abuse specifically in Manx law for the first time and also gives police the powers to issue emergency protection notices to keep alleged perpetrators away from someone at risk. It also introduces an offence of ’controlling or coercive behaviour’.