fathers access rights? (posting for traffic)

[WorriedFriend2013]

namechanged in case friends wife is on here. posting in AIBU for traffic.

basically, my good friend has left his wife, about 4 weeks ago. They have a 1 year old dd. His wife has always been a bit controlling and 'odd', and has slowly driven away the majority of his friends and family over the 4 years they have been together. They had an argument last month and she said some disgusting things about his family, which kind of woke him up to what she was really like.

They split and she is now living at her mothers, with their dd. She has not allowed him to see dd since. Obviously he is totally heartbroken over this, as his daughter is his whole world. He has suggested various things eg, only seeing his daughter in a public place like a cafe/playgym, her supervising them at the house etc, but she is having none of it.

Her latest thing is that 'she is scared to see him', when there is zero history of violence/abuse from him. He is now terrified that she will lie and say he has hurt her or dd in order to stop contact for good.

He has made an appointment with a solicitor for the end of the week, but we just wanted to know, basically, is there any chance that she could keep his dd from him for good? If she lies will they just believe her even if there is no evidence?
She has said she will do everything in her power to make sure he and his family never see dd again, but does she actually have this power?

[pinkballetflats]

Yes, he can make an application through the courts. No, false accusations of domestic abuse will likely not prevent him from seeing his daughter, but it could cost him more time and money. If she is saying that she will do everything in her power to prevent DD seeing him or his family again than she is a very silly woman - if it's in writing, unless she has extremely good reasons for saying this then it's not going to sit well with a judge.

Tell your friend to not engage in goading, only do things that are in the best interests of his daughter and do not get into arguments - leave it to solicitors - she's made her position clear.

Also, you are only getting one side of the story....this could be one of my ex-H's friends writing this because these were the things that were said about me while all the time it was him who was refusing to see our LO. Sometimes things aren't what they seem.

Best to stay out of it as much as possible and be sympathetic but keep your distance - these things can get extremely ugly.