Update on failed asylum seeker ex taking me to court

[StillWorried2014]

Have name changed, I posted before when my baby was a newborn but had to have that thread removed due to ex finding it and harassing me.

He has now been granted legal aid to raise a court action against me and has stated it is for contact. Initially he said he was going to court to force me to put his name on the bc and for DNA. This has nothing to do with him wanting to be a parent and everything to do with his immigration status. I was advised to go no contact with him by my lawyer and wait for court. He threatened to take the baby to Iraq when she was just 2 weeks old and has harassed me at home making it necessary for me to call the police, he also went to my parents' house and harassed my mum.
He has a history of aggression and I have logged everything with the police and women's aid. I have also been in touch with my MP and have reported everything to UKBA and legal aid but to no avail.
Why would he be given legal aid when he's not meant to have recourse to public funds except for matters relating to his asylum claim/appeal? especially since they have evidence he has been illegally working. I am in Scotland. Does anyone know how long it could take for this to come to court?

[Icimoi]

Are you sure he has got legal aid? As I read this there is no legal aid available for contact proceedings. However, it might be different in Scotland. Have you actually heard from solicitors?

[PiratePanda]

Legal aid is no longer available for family court except for victims of domestic violence (and the grounds for proving DV are stringent). Or does that not apply in Scotland?

[StillWorried2014]

Yes he definitely has legal aid, Scottish Legal Aid Board wrote to me and told me he was applying for it to raise an action against me, so naturally my solicitor objected, and then when they granted it they wrote again telling me of the decision to give it to him.
He definitely hasn't been the victim of DV so I guess the rules must be different here?

My ex may well find this thread too but I thought if I didn't post here it would slip past most people with legal knowledge.

Does anyone have any idea how long it might take to come to court? I know that might not be possible to answer, just wondering how long it may be hanging over us.

[StillWorried2014]

Thanks Chunderella I will contact the court. I guess he knows he won't be removed by UKBA if contact proceedings are pending, hence the reason he is doing it in the first place. I will just have to push for supervised and hope that they take seriously his threats of abduction. I also hope that a lot of this is about him getting to remain here and control and that he will lose interest after a while. Thanks for your advice last time too, I saved the thread and refer back to it.

[StillWorried2014]

Hi reviving my last thread to update. He was granted legal aid, as was I thankfully. Court proceedings have begun and so far he has not been awarded contact due to the concerns re abduction to his home country.

Unfortunately he has not changed and had 2 women at the same time, both pregnant, both now know about each other. One dumped him and miscarried, the other is sticking by him and lying for him, and they are getting married. His side did conceded that contact with my daughter does add considerable weight to his application to remain here but quickly went on to state that his upcoming marriage was just as likely to secure it.

A background report was done which described him as a liar (generally and he was caught out in direct lies to the court appointed solicitor tasked with compiling the report) amongst other things, and the recommendation was no contact but the judge has not ruled this. He has asked for a full evidential hearing, but no interim contact was awarded so that is something.

He has lied throughout and has continued to lie, his present partner is also lying for him. Can I hope that this will come to light under questioning?

Is it likely that he will achieve his aim of getting to stay in the UK via this new partner anyway and he doesn't need my daughter any longer? His main reason for pursuing me through the courts was to use her to stay here but I know he won't put all his eggs in the one basket so to speak.

Obviously I remain very concerned about her safety but unless he actually tried to take her no one seems to be too bothered and will look for supervised contact to move on quickly if it were granted. How do I convince them and keep her safe?

[SavoyCabbage]

Hopefully he will lose interest in your dd once she is no longer useful to him. Do you know where the new woman lives? I can't see him being bothered about travelling any distance to have contact with your dd. he might just fade away.

[StillWorried2014]

Yes I know where she lives it is about 30 miles away, the same distance as he would have been travelling before to come here. I can only hope he might lose interest but the other ex said he was obsessive about her and about 'winning' so I am not optimistic right now.

[StillWorried2014]

Can anyone tell me any of the answers to my queries?

[MaudantWit]

I am not an immigration lawyer, but my understanding is that a marriage contracted when the person has no valid leave to remain (which I assume is the case with your ex, since you describe him as a failed asylum seeker) isn't usually a basis for being granted leave to remain.

[StillWorried2014]

Thank you MaudantWit that is good to know.

[MaudantWit]

My knowledge is confined to what I've gleaned from the immigration pages on gov.uk (have you looked at those?) but there do seem to be circumstances in which being the parent/carer of a child living here can give a person a basis of stay. There's some information here about what they term the parent route(s). How that would interact with his being a failed asylum seeker, I don't know.

Has your lawyer been able to advise you on the immigration issues here?

[StillWorried2014]

Thanks Chunderella, appreciate it and hope you have a speedy recovery. Congrats on your new baby. I did think that his case would be stronger if he has contact. So far he's been denied it despite asking for supervised but I know that could change when we are next at court.

[contact1234]

hi stillworried2014 i would like to know how everything went with ur court since ur last thread in 15/02/2015 did he get any contact or was it dismissed from court

[contact1234]

hello

[StillWorried2014]

Hi I didn't log back in for ages as I was too stressed really. The current situation is that after nearly 4 years the case is now on hold and no contact order is now in place. He did get contact despite background report and recommendations to the court that contact was not in the best interests of the child, but he was granted supervised only, and he hasn't been willing to cooperate with the court or to turn up regularly to the contact centre or keep to many arrangements made to her. She never knew whether he would turn up or not, missed her birthday and Christmas with no explanation.
He was arrogant and aggressive to the court and to social services and refused to be interviewed or to allow family to be interviewed by them. I had to involve SW when safety issues were highlighted around contact if it were to be made unsupervised due to possible FGM risk and abduction threats (which the judge refused to take seriously but SW and another agency which educate on FGM absolutely did) and all recommendations from SW, background report etc were that no contact should ever have been started as they did not think him genuinely interested in his child or conducting himself in a safe manner. Judges of course can decide to go against that, and that is why the case took so long and resulted in him being awarded supervised contact. Judge was also not concerned at all that he was proven to be working illegally, giving false addresses and driving without a license, insurance or MOT.

[StillWorried2014]

As far as I know he has not had any more children despite claiming one woman was pregnant, and he didn't get married as his fiancee eventually saw he had not changed. His asylum status is still not decided, he's apparently still awaiting the outcome of his appeal but he refused to tell my solicitor and was not made to tell the court either what his exact immigration status is.

[prh47bridge]

The judge will only be concerned about matters that affect the children. So, for example, the fact that he is working illegally is irrelevant when considering contact. Similarly, as contact is supervised, driving without a license, insurance of MOT is irrelevant, as is giving a false address. However, any risk FGM is clearly relevant as is any threat of abduction.

[tribpot]

I was hoping you were updating an old thread to say it had all been resolved, StillWorried2014 - as I'm sure you wish you were.

I'm glad that he is having no contact with her, that's a plus point. I assume he originates from the area of Iraq where FGM is very prevalent, since the country as a whole is not a major FGM area (although anything above zero would be enough of a reason for me to want supervised contact only).

Glad as well that he hasn't obtained leave to remain via the marriage, his fiancee had a lucky escape.

[StillWorried2014]

Thanks Tribpot yes it's been very stressful to say the least.

Driving without a license and dodgy car etc was relevant if it was moving to unsupervised contact which it looked like it could at one point and he was saying he was going to take her out in the car.
In my opinion constant lying about just about everything including his address should be taken into consideration by a judge as a marker of someone's likelihood to observe or respect the law, but hey ho. I am glad that SW thought differently. If he's given unsupervised contact and the judge can't even be bothered to make him verify his address where do I tell the police where to find him if she didn't return?? The court would have no clue either. I fail to see how that's in her best interests.