Children of murdered man to be split up.

[ChesterGreySideboard]

Michael Simpson murder: Grandparents agree custody deal in China www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-46715113

The man is English and married a Chinese woman, they lived in China with their two children until she murdered him. She is now in prison.
The children lived with their mother’s family but the father’s family have now been granted custody of the girl.

It’s a very odd situation and although I completely understand why the grandparents want the grandchildren is it right to take them away from everything they know?

It’s hard to know isn’t it without being aware of all the details. I have seen the British grandfather on various interviews over the years campaigning to bring the children to the uk. I was never sure it was the right thing to do at their age and my instinct is that the children should not have been separated.

Sorry I’m laughing at won’t recognise the food.
They were well off and went to an expat school

I would want his children to be with me and in a lifestyle they know rather than a provincial village

A tiny village in the Suffolk countryside is just about as unlike Hong Kong as you can get.

Sorry I’m laughing at won’t recognise the food.
They were well off and went to an expat school

I don’t know what being well off has to do with it. Do you think well off Chinese people eat roast dinners?
As I understand it they have been living with the grandparents for the last two year so I don’t expect they’ve been eating fish and chips.

Sorry OP you seem determined to make out that the children will be living alien lives.

So what if they ate Chinese food for two years? I’m sure eating a roast dinner isn’t going to blow them away.

Children move countries. It happens. My husband could get a job tomorrow in China and we’d all manage to survive.

More importantly the daughter will be with a set of grandparents who aren’t going to lie to her about her father and won’t minimise what her mother did which is what it appears the other family did.

I don't see how it's in anyone's interests to separate the children. They should stay together. It's very tough for the British GPs but the children were born and lived in China. This is the consequence of that. In a reversal of the situation can you imagine British born and raised children being sent away from British grandparents to live with a grandparent in China in these circumstances? It just wouldn't happen.

The little girl is 6. She has spent nearly two years living with her Chinese family.

Yes most children who move countries adapt quickly. But those are children who move with the support of at least one parent with them.

In a reversal of the situation can you imagine British born and raised children being sent away from British grandparents to live with a grandparent in China in these circumstances? It just wouldn't happen.

I doubt it would but then the UK doesn't have much in the way of a large Chinese wealthy ex-pat community with children going to international schools and learning Mandarin does it? (happy to be corrected if I'm wrong)

There is a Japanese language school.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rikkyo_School_in_England

Why did the mother stab the father and his new girlfriend?
Obviously it is completely indefensible, but there is usually some sort of motive for murder. There is a lot about this case that doesn't seem to be reported in the U.K. -like any coverage of the trial for example.

I feel very sorry for the English grandparents but I don't think it was right to separate the siblings. It would have been better I think if the English grandparents had agreed to visit both children and provide financial support.

There is a Japanese language school.

Useful.

I would be thinking about the trauma that young girl will be suffering at being removed from her family and missing them, suddenly living in another country and the effects of that on her as she gets older. The uk grandparents might be naive about that.

According to The Times he was bringing up the children himself in Shanghai and had started a new relationship with a British educated Chinese woman when his ex-wife produced a knife from her handbag and stabbed both him and his new girlfriend.

Premeditated murder and not self defence then.

The Chinese GPs weren't allowing contact though. There was an original offer which would have reduced the daughter's jail term , but the chinese family rejected it and demanded £60k for the children. It feels like they've used them as bargaining tools rather than having any real love for them. They've told the children that both parents have moved away for work and they won't see them again!

Actually quite a bit has been reported. The father was raising them himself in Shanghai. The children spoke perfect English and went to an expat school.

I can’t believe people are asking why their mother murdered their father. As though there maybe some hidden justification. She attacked both him and his girlfriend in their own home.

Nobody on MN would ever ask why a man killed his ex wife.

It is sad that the children are separated but actually for 4 years they lived with their British father and for some of that time solely looked after by him. For 2 years they lived with their GP probably very confused at being told their father was away for work and would never return

They have met their British grandparents several times. Their Chinese family asked the GP’s to consider their mother’s feelings as if they should concern themselves with the woman who murdered there son. The Chinese family refused access and demanded thousands of pounds. They parted with the girl and kept the boy. They lied about where the parents were and what their mother had done.
I can imagine the British GP are perhaps concerned about their mother being released and the children being raised by a murderer and being fed lies about their father. or even worse whether she could be capable of hurting those children.

Posters seem to want the murdered father to have been some kind of monster but by all news accounts (we have nothing else to go by) he was a devoted loving father raising 2 children who was brutally and viciously murdered.

My sympathy lies with his parents.

I'd be concerned about the sort of parenting they'll be getting from the Chinese grandparents. After all the daughter they raised ended up a murderer.

There is a Japanese language school.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rikkyo_School_in_England
🤦🏻‍♀️

They're Chinese though. No, they are not similar.

As someone who has had to adjust to a new culture from the age of 6 without speaking a word of English, I adapted over time and my English is better than my mother tongue.

The girl's father was English so perhaps they're bilingual as is usually the case in biracial families.

It is a very pitiful situation.

They're Chinese though. No, they are not similar.

No. I know they aren’t similar.
What I was saying though is that there are schools in this country that teach in a different language and that the reverse of this situation could, theoretically, be possible.

Hypothetically speaking, if they were both brought to the UK to live, why would there be a need to educate them in a different language? If they want them to be part of a Chinese community, there are plenty of Chinese schools that run during the weekends like I used to go to.

It is hard to comment on this without possession of the full facts. Siblings being separated is awful and I see no profit to either of them being brought up separately in different countries and different guardians.

Adapting to culture isn't the biggest issue they face in my humble opinion.