It is a comment I’ve made because if reading what happens in family courts.
For example, the little girl, Sara Sharif, recently repeatedly battered and then killed by her father, was put in her father’s custody though he was reported as having abused her birth mother.
Mothers who try to report abusive husbands can be accused of lying and causing the children ‘parental alienation’ from the other parent.
One of the girls raped by one of the Rotherham men, had a son as a result of the rape. Social services put the father, who was in prison, in touch with him. Apparently it is the child’s right to see their other parent, but in fact in practice it works tge other way and is called ‘Parental Rights & Responsibilities and speaks if the parent’s rights over the child.
This, published in February of this year, is a special study on the effects of dealing with family courts both on health, and the outcomes leaving children vulnerable to an abusive parent.
“Child Custody and Litigation Abuse
Health-related experiences of family court and domestic abuse in England: A looming public health crisis”
Excerpt:
^Abusive fathers may use legal proceedings in England as a weapon to continue abuse and control (Barnett, 2020a, 2020b; Birchall & Choudhry, 2022; Hunter et al., 2020; Katz,
2022).^Hester (2013) highlighted that child protection and public law frameworks require victim-survivor mothers to leave and protect children from perpetrators.
However, within PLP, mothers are expected to support child contact with "good enough" fathers despite these fathers having a history of perpetrating DA and/or DA convictions. This leaves mothers in a "lose-lose" situation.
Excerpt:
^This and global evidence cite inherent biases in favor of fathers' testimonies and that courts are proliferating a "pro-contact approach" (Barnett, 2020b, p. 41) between children and abusers, placing children in harmful contact situations (Barnett, 2014,
2020a, 2020b; Hunter et al., 2020; Khaw et al.,^
2021; Meier, 2020; Spearman et al., 2022).
Allegations of parental alienation (PA) were described in the report as being used systematically to silence and diminish abuse allegations, placing victim-survivors at risk.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/26904586.2024.2307609
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5
September
2024
Fathers accused of child sexual abuse given legal access to their alleged victims
Content warning - please note there is distressing content in this press release.*
Nine fathers were given legal access by private family court law proceedings (PLP) to the children they were accused of sexually abusing, according to a qualitative study.
The groundbreaking UKRI funded paper, published in the Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, was carried out by University of Manchester researchers in partnership with members of SHERA Research Group and The Survivor Family Network.
It is based on the experience of 45 women from across England in PLP who along with some of their children accused the men of abuse, including child sexual abuse (CSA) in nine cases.
A tenth father, a convicted paedophile, had groomed the mother as a child and been convicted of child sex offences but hadn’t yet harmed the child sexually. Other fathers convicted of child sex offences were also given direct access to their children.
Of the 45 studied, fathers were given access in 43 cases.
https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/fathers-accused-of-child-sexual-abuse-given-legal-access-to-their-alleged-victims/