Court Case

[Anon247]

Hi, I'm wondering whether anyone has experienced something similar or if anyone could give me a bit of advice please. Sorry for the long post but just want to give as much information as possible. I met my ex partner in August 2016 and fell pregnant after 3 months (this was not planned). Throughout the pregnancy my ex partner became very controlling, coercive and lied about almost everything to the point he was a completely different person he made himself out to be. He is bipolar and has has a past of trying to commit suicide and is involved heavily in drug (cocaine) and alcohol abuse. I then found out he was involved in a lot of criminality and by the time I was 7 months pregnant I decided to leave him however he still had a lot of control over me, he threatened me that if I didnt put him on the birth certificate something bad would happen etc. Despite all of our issues I have always allowed him to be in our daughters life and he has had supervised contact since my daughter was born. In 2018 he was asking for unsupervised contact. I decided to do Clare's Law to find out if he had a history of domestic abuse as he had been very much mentally abusive to me and the police would not disclose any of the information on his record to me "as we were no longer in a relationship" but they told me there is something concerning and not to allow unsupervised contact. I did not have the funds to go court and was denied legal aid but at this point he advised he was happy with the arrangements (he did not know I applied to Clare's Law). In July 2019 I had concerns he was up to something and had severe anxiety about him being around my daughter but could not put my finger on it and he asked to speak to me, in the conversation he said the current arrangements were not working and he wants to take her out. I explained to him about my Clare's Law application and if he wanted unsupervised then we would have to go through court. He then told me he "had something on his record to do with a young girl" when questioned further he advised me the girl was 13 and it was "threw out of court because nobody would testify". I immediately applied for Sarah's Law and discovered he wasnt honest with what he told me and the information he shared was "played down" in a sense (even though what he told me was extremely serious) to what really happened, the child was younger and he sexually abused them but it was discharged from court so it didnt go down as a conviction on his record but they had enough evidence to believe it did happen. I immediately applied to court and had our first court hearing. The judge has decided not to look into the sexual abuse against a child as it isnt down as a conviction on his record and has just asked for doctors records on his mental health which the letter from his doctor does not mention his bipolar and only depression which makes it seem like I caused it by breaking up with him. He has admitted to the judge to taking "recreational drugs on occasion" but denied the domestic abuse and denied ever taking these drugs whilst being with me which is completely untrue. Unfortunately because I didnt see the signs of domestic abuse* until my family raised it with me and I left him, I only have 1 video to prove he was and the judge has also not ordered a drugs test to be done as he has admitted taking them on occasion. He now wants weekend contact once a fortnight overnight and also holidays and this is giving me so much stress and anxiety. Cafcass have been out to see us both, I have raised my concerns and I am waiting for the report but he seems so confident he is going to get what he wants and my daughter is only 2, she has only ever known living with me and that daddy comes to see her on certain days. With other peoples experience, has the mothers concerns despite lack of evidence ever been taken into account? I feel my concerns are not being listened to and that he will get the full weekends he is asking for. The judge seemed very much on his side. His criminal record also stated alot of other concerning informstion with regards to criminality but these are all historic even though I am well aware he is still involved in everything. I have never stopped contact up until I found out about the sexual abuse against a child and after the court hearing I agreed to have contact in a public place with someone from my family also present like always due to the domestic abuse.*

[Law Student 5]

I am sorry to hear about this and hopefully, my advice will be helpful to your case.

You may want to consider to appeal the court's decision, and the process can be found here (https://assets.publishing.service.go.../ex340-eng.pdf) or (https://childlawadvice.org.uk/inform...pages/appeals/)

You may also want to consider to apply for the following:

Using the factors listed from S.1(3) of the Children Act 1989, any harm the child has suffered or is at risk of suffering, encompassing both physical and emotional harm will be crucial to your case.* Here, you may be able to argue that your ex-partner’s act in mental abuse and having bipolar disorder could potentially expose your child to emotionally harm.* I believe you mentioned that the doctor report did not mention the fact he has bipolar disorder, therefore you may want to request the court for further psychiatric examination.

Apart from Child Arrangments Order, there are two other types of orders established under S.8(1) of CA 1989 – ‘prohibited steps order (PSO)’ and ‘specific issue order (SIO)’.*
- ‘PSO’ prohibits the person with PR not to do something in respect of their child, and;
- ‘SIO’ usually deals with issues relating to the child’s upbringing.*

An SIO would only be useful to you if you had a specific question about your child’s upbringing, for example, the constant mental abuse.

Again, a PSO may be useful to you as it would allow the Court to provide a restriction on the father’s parental responsibility (e.g. removing the child from the UK), arguably your ex-partner is in the risk of harming your children’s and your mental health.

In my opinion, I believe it may be worth for you to seek legal help from an experienced solicitor.*

Good Luck!

[Lola49]

You asked if anyone has experience of your situation, well I have experience of the family court in a number of cases, and think they need a damn good overhaul, in this country it is an outdated draconic system that should be changed without delay, however this opinion won't help you in your situation. But there is no way that I believe from what I have seen that the children's interest is kept central in many cases, sadly. However you are the resident parent and the court will not want to upset you, and they will also want your daughter to maintain a relationship with her father.

The court will generally only look into factual evidence and proven information hence their reluctance to look into historical unproven allegations and suspicions. And they will rely on the CAFCASS assessment, they have an obligation to I believe. This is the expert analysis on what is going on for your daughter, so it depends on whether you get a good report writer or not.

Can I ask apart from what you have mentioned what sort of father is he? is he caring and can he look after your daughter's needs?